One-Third of All Houses for Sale in the US Are Newly Built: Report

Dwindling Water Supply Forces Cities Like Phoenix To Make Hard Choices — (Photo : (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)) A worker helps construct a new home at a master-planned residential community near undeveloped Sonoran Desert on June 8, 2023 in Buckeye, Arizona. Buckeye is one of the fastest growing cities in the country and is located on the fringe of the Phoenix metropolitan area. Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs announced last week that that there is a shortage of groundwater for new housing construction which has been previously approved in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Arizona will no longer be able to give developers new permits for home construction in some outlying desert suburbs of Maricopa County which rely on groundwater wells. Some developers and affected cities will need to search for alternative sources of water for future development amid a warming climate.

A third of all single-family homes for sale in the first quarter of 2024 in the United States were newly built, a report found.

About 33.4% of all single-family homes listed for sale in the first quarter were newly built, double the levels recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic. This is according to a report published Monday by real estate brokerage Redfin. However, the numbers are down from a record-high of 34.5% two years earlier.

"We have a fair amount of new-construction homes for sale, and thank goodness we do," Nicole Dege, a Redfin Premier agent in Orlando, said in the report.

"Buyers are having a hard time finding single-family homes in their budget because not many homeowners are letting go of their houses, and those who are listing tend to price high because they haven't come to terms with the fact that prices have come down from their 2022 peak. Builders have a better understanding of the current market, so they're pricing fairly, offering mortgage-rate buydowns, and providing other concessions to attract buyers," Dege added.

What It Means for Homebuyers

Unlike sellers of existing homes, builders of new homes may be more flexible when it comes to the sale price. Additionally, home builders also have more space to offer buyers some incentives, including buy-downs and covering the closing costs. In some cases, builders may also offer price cuts averaging 5% to 6%, Robert Dietz, chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders, told CNBC.

Despite the incentives, the median sales price of new houses is slightly higher than the price of existing homes. According to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, newly built homes sold in March had a median sales price of $430,700.

The price of new homes was 4% higher than the median price of an existing home. In comparison, the price of a new home was 40% higher than an existing house prior to the pandemic, Matthew Walsh, assistant director and economist at Moody's Analytics, told CNBC.