Spring Gains Absent as New Home Metrics Stall

Year-over-year comparisons remain tepid; market conditions stay near average

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., April 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Zonda's March 2025 New Home Market Update marked a turning point for the soft data (reflecting feelings and perceptions), as economic uncertainty began to weigh on consumers, businesses, and investors.

In March 2024, 5% of homebuilders told Zonda that "demand is slower and causing concern." Those responses jumped to nearly 40% this year. This matched our actual data on the new home market, which showed sales remained relatively flat month-over-month and are down year-over-year.

"The March housing market trends almost seem irrelevant given the current climate," said Ali Wolf, chief economist for Zonda and NewHomeSource. "The on-again-off-again tariffs, wild gyrations in the stock market, and volatility in mortgage rates are adding an extra layer of uncertainty for today's homebuyers. We are tracking to see if consumers can brush it off or decide to move to the sidelines for now." 

New home sales tick down again, lowest since 2023     
Zonda's new home sales shows there were 650,355 new homes sold in March on a seasonally adjusted annualized rate. This was a decline of 3.2% from last month and a drop of 11.5% from a year ago. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, 61,350 homes were sold, 11.7% lower than last year and 4.4% above the same month in 2019.

Pricing nearly flat year-over-year
Home prices were largely flat across all price segments. Prices fell 0.7% for entry-level to $329,130 and 0.2% for move-up to $519,375, but rose 0.9% for high-end homes to $909,894. Our pricing data makes no adjustments for home size or location.

Supplementing our data with a monthly survey Zonda conducts, 32% of builders lowered prices in March, 53% held prices flat, and 15% raised prices. In February, for comparison, 21% of builders lowered prices MOM, 61% held prices flat, and 18% increased prices.

Incentives are still common in today's housing market to help address the affordability constraints for buyers. In March, 56% of new home communities offered incentives on to-be-built homes and 74% on quick move-in supply.

Quick move-ins up almost 80% since 2019
National quick move-ins (QMIs - can likely be occupied within 90 days) totaled 34,079, up 20.6% compared to last year but 6.1% lower month-over-month. Total QMIs are 79.7% above 2019 levels.

NEW STARTING LAST MONTH: We now include QMIs per community in the full version of this report. QMIs per community is a good way to track how new home supply looks in the context of actively selling projects. Currently, there are 2.3 QMIs per community nationally, up 25% from the 1.9 this time last year but down 8.0% from the 2022 peak of 2.5.

Join us at upcoming events (next: Q2 Housing Market Forecast webinar, April 24; Navigating the Multifamily Market webinar, May 1). 

See the full report including data and analysis. Visit NewHomeSource for more on:

• A Step-by-Step Guide to the Home Building Process
• 6 Ways to Afford the Home You Really Want
• Your Options When You Want a Quick Move-in House

Visit ZondaHome.com or follow us on LinkedIn for more information.

About Zonda
Zonda provides data-driven housing market solutions to the homebuilding industry. From builders to building product manufacturers, mortgage clients, and multifamily executives, we work hand-in-hand with our customers to streamline access to housing data to empower smarter decisions. As a leading brand in residential construction, our mission is to advance the home building industry, because we believe better homes mean better lives and stronger communities. Together, we are building the future of housing.

Media Contact: Diane Begin
[email protected] | (224) 836-5615

SOURCE NewHomeSource powered by Zonda