Falling interest rates in the closing weeks of 2023 helped to bring buyers off the sidelines and provide a boost for new home sales. Sales of newly built, single-family homes in December increased 8.0% to a 664,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate from an upwardly revised reading in November, according to newly released data by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. The pace of new home sales in December is up 4.4% from a year earlier. On an annual basis, new home sales totaled 668,000 in 2023, up 4.2% from the 2022 figure of 641,000. …New single-family home inventory in December remained elevated at a level of 453,000, up 0.4% compared to a year earlier. This represents an 8.2 months’ supply at the current building pace. A measure near a 6 months’ supply is considered balanced.