Prospective Buyers in West Pivoting Back to New Construction

After falling steadily for five quarters, the popularity of new homes rebounded in the second quarter of 2022, as 21% of prospective buyers reported looking for a newly-built home – up from 19% a quarter earlier.  A possible reason for this pivot is the recent growth in the inventory of new homes for-sale, while the supply of existing homes on the market remains very tight.

Regionally, the increased interest for new homes is driven entirely by the West, where the share of buyers looking to buy a newly-built home rose from 24% in the first quarter of 2022 to 30% in the second quarter. In contrast, the share declined in all other regions during this period.

* Results come from the Housing Trends Report (HTR) – a research product created by the NAHB Economics team with the goal of measuring prospective home buyers’ perceptions about the availability and affordability of homes for-sale in their markets.  The HTR is produced quarterly to track changes in buyers’ perceptions over time.  All data are derived from national polls of representative samples of American adults conducted for NAHB by Morning Consult.  Results are seasonally adjusted.  A description of the poll’s methodology and sample characteristics can be found here. This is the second in a series of six posts highlighting results for the 2^nd quarter of 2022.