Home Builders: Sales Cool Slightly, Still Up Year-Over-Year

In matching with other national housing reports, home builders indicated that new home sales cooled slightly in November according to the latest State of the Industry Report from BTIG. However, sales and customer traffic still exceeded year-over-year numbers, emphasizing the overall strength of the season.  

Builders also reported continuing to raise prices, though at a lower rate than October, while fewer builders reported rising input costs. Eighty-one builders from across the United States contributed to the latest report.  

The data also matches the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, which came in four points below November’s high of 90.  

Highlights from the latest State of the Industry Report

Sales and traffic. In this report, 63 percent of builders reported year-over-year increases in new home sales orders compared to 76 percent in October and 50 percent in November 2019. Sixty-two percent of respondents reported year-over-year traffic increases, down from 71 percent in October. Twenty-one percent reported a decline in traffic compared to 11 percent in October. Fewer builders also reported better quality of traffic, suggesting customer urgency has waned somewhat or that builders have already worked through a significant number of highly qualified customers.  

Expectations. Sales and traffic relative to expectations decreased from October with 57 percent reporting sales as better than expected compared to 59 percent in October. Forty-four percent of respondents reported traffic as better than expected compared to 54 percent in October. 

Pricing and incentives. Sixty-eight percent of builders raised some, most or all base prices in November from October compared to 76 percent reporting the same in October. Only two percent of respondents lowered prices, while incentive use also remained low.  

Input costs. Fewer builders reported material cost increases this month with only 67 percent of respondents indicating costs rose compared to 84 percent in October. Fewer builders also reported month-over-month increases in labor and land costs, while 19 percent reported increased availability of acceptably priced lots on a year-over-year basis. That compares to 12 percent in October and eight percent in November 2019.  

HomeSphere/BTIG State of the Industry Report

HomeSphere partners with the research firm BTIG to create a monthly report to provide our builders and manufacturers with exclusive and timely insights about the market.

To compile the report, we survey HomeSphere’s 2,600+ regional and local home builders about sales, traffic, pricing, labor costs and other key industry metrics.

How to get the monthly report

If you are a builder and would like to participate and receive the monthly report for free, request an invitation below: