Simpler Starts

While May housing starts rose 2.9% compared to April, 8.9% Y-o-Y, and 12.2% YTD, sales were weak in 16Q1 making comparisons easy. Critically, the median new home price surged 16.5% Y-o-Y to $345,800 while the average jumped 16.1% Y-o-Y to $406,400, both records. Moreover, since peaking in 15Q1, new homes have been shrinking; the median by 5.2% since 15Q1; the average by 3.9%. Both still exceed slightly their then-2007 peaks.