Federal government says new home sales plunged over 12% in July

Home sales throughout the United States plunged well over 12 percent in July relative to June, with the year-over-year number plummeting by nearly 30 percent, the federal government said on Tuesday. 

The Department of Housing and Urban Development said in a press release that data from HUD and the U.S. Census Bureau indicated "sales of new single‐family houses in July 2022 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 511,000."

The agencies said those numbers represent come in at "12.6 percent below the revised June rate of 585,000 and is 29.6 percent below the July 2021 estimate of 726,000."

Those declining numbers come amid what appears to be a broad cooling-off of the white-house housing market, with sales apparently falling in most categories as interest rates rise and buyers back off. 

Last week the National Association of Realtors said that "July 2022 existing-home sales were down 5.9% from June and 20.2% from one year ago, with all four major U.S. regions recording month-over-month and year-over-year declines."