Stable mortgage rates at the beginning of 2024 helped new home sales to increase in January. Sales of newly built, single-family homes in January increased 1.5% to a 661,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate from a downwardly revised reading in December, 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 January is up 1.8% from a year earlier. …New single-family home inventory in January remained elevated at a level of 456,000, up 3.9% compared to a year earlier. This represents an 8.3 months’ supply at the current building pace. A measure near a six months’ supply is considered balanced. …The median new home sale price in January was $420,700, up 1.8% from December, but down 2.6% compared to a year ago. In terms of affordability, the share of entry-level homes priced below $300,000 has been steadily falling in recent years.