The latest data for new home sales is out for the month of June, and it continues to be bad news for home builders and sellers. But, it's important to note that bad news for sellers is frequently good news for owners of rental properties, because it means demand for rentals will continue to be high and prices of homes that you can acquire for additional rental properties remain reasonable.
The data for June shows that new home sales dropped by 8.1% from May, and figures for March, April, and May were also revised downwards. In the south, the number was even worse at a 9.5% drop. The median sales price was down 3.2% from May, but up 5.2% from the previous year.
For existing home sales, numbers were actually up 2.6% from May, but down 5% from a year ago. Housing inventory is also at a 3-year high.
Again, bad news for home sales is usually good news for owners of rental properties. Would-be buyers are instead choosing to stay in rental properties for a variety of reasons, including the fact that millennials continue to show little interest in homeownership. Your rental properties should continue to have little problem finding tenants, evidenced by our average time on market of under a month. This also means that you have more time to acquire more properties for your investment portfolio before prices go up to levels unattractive for investors.
Give us a call if you'd like to rent out your house or acquire more investment properties. As a full-service brokerage, we can help you with it all.
