Median Sale Price of New Houses (US)

The Census Bureau's survey of new home sales puts the Q2 2026 median at $410,700, little changed from $416,100 a year earlier. It was about the same as in Q1 2026, a move within the survey's margin and the usual seasonal swing.

The newest quarter is preliminary and is revised when the next quarter comes out.

This is the price of newly built single-family houses, land included, agreed when the contract is signed. Resales of existing homes are not in it, and neither are condos in multifamily buildings, manufactured homes or houses built for rent. The price leaves out options paid for separately, so it is not the full cost to the buyer. It is a national figure; the survey reports only the U.S. and four regions.

The median is estimated from a sample of building permits, and Census puts its relative standard error at about 3 percent, so a move of less than about 3 percent can be sampling noise. A change in the median also mixes real price changes with shifts in where and what size of houses were sold, so it does not show what the same house would sell for. For that, a repeat-sales index such as the FHFA House Price Index is the better guide.

For reference, the median was $327,100 in the fourth quarter of 2019 and $442,600 in the fourth quarter of 2022, in the current published figures. Census revised its 2020 to 2024 prices in May 2024, so older quotes of these quarters can differ.

Price is only part of what a buyer pays each month. Shelter CPI tracks the ongoing cost of housing for renters and owners, and mortgage rates and incomes come from other series. This median alone is not an affordability measure.