US New Home Sales: 2026 Schedule, Dates and What to Expect

US New Home Sales measures how many newly built single-family homes were sold in the United States during a month. It is published jointly by the US Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as part of the Monthly New Residential Sales report, and it appears every month at 10:00 am ET. The next release is on Tuesday August 25, 2026 at 10:00 am ET (3:00 pm London), covering sales during July 2026. The most recent reading, for June 2026, was a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 628,000, published on July 24, 2026. This page carries the full 2026 schedule, the methodology, recent data and an ICS and Google Calendar feed so you can add every release date to your own calendar.

2026 schedule

Every confirmed 2026 release date for the Monthly New Residential Sales report is listed below. Dates are set by the Census Bureau in its annual economic indicator calendar, and all releases are at 10:00 am in Washington, which is 3:00 pm in London during US daylight saving time and 3:00 pm in London again after the clocks change in both regions in late autumn.

The report is normally released about 24 to 26 days after the end of the reference month, which is why the November and December dates fall just before the US Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

What is US New Home Sales?

New home sales count contracts signed, not keys handed over. A sale is recorded when a deposit is taken or a sales agreement is signed for a new single-family house, even if construction has not started. That makes the series one of the earliest signals in the housing chain: it moves before existing home sales, which are recorded at completion, and before construction spending shows up in the national accounts.

The headline number is quoted as a seasonally adjusted annual rate, or SAAR. If a month’s raw sales pace continued for a full year, adjusted for normal seasonal patterns, that is the annual rate you see. So a reading of 628,000 does not mean 628,000 homes sold in June 2026: it means the June pace was consistent with 628,000 sales over a year. Annualising makes months comparable, which matters in a market where spring is always busier than January.

The release also contains figures investors watch as closely as the headline: the number of new houses for sale at month end, the months’ supply (how long the standing inventory would last at the current sales pace) and median and average sale prices. At the end of June 2026 there were 485,000 new homes for sale, equal to 9.3 months of supply, according to the Census Bureau and HUD. Anything above roughly six months is generally read as a buyer’s market, where builders are more likely to cut prices or offer incentives such as paying down a buyer’s mortgage rate.

Because new construction is where builders respond fastest to interest rates, the series is treated as a barometer for the whole rate-sensitive part of the economy: mortgages, building materials, appliances, furniture and construction jobs.

How is it calculated or decided?

The data come from the Survey of Construction, in which Census Bureau field representatives sample houses selected from building permit records and interview builders and owners each month. Sales that happen before a permit is issued are estimated and added in, so the figure captures the whole market rather than only permitted units.

The survey is small relative to the market, and that shows in the confidence intervals printed in every release. The June 2026 monthly change of 1.6% carried a 90% confidence interval of plus or minus 14.8 percentage points, meaning the Census Bureau could not say with statistical confidence that sales rose at all. Revisions are also large: the Census Bureau notes in the June 2026 report that the preliminary seasonally adjusted estimate of total sales is revised by about 5.0% on average. May 2026 illustrates the point, first reported at 580,000 and later revised up to 618,000.

The practical rule for readers: treat any single month as noise and watch the three-month trend, the inventory figure and the median price together. Each release revises the previous three months alongside the new headline.

What time is it released and where?

Releases are at 10:00 am Eastern Time, which is 3:00 pm in London, 4:00 pm in Frankfurt and Paris, 11:00 pm in Hong Kong and Singapore, and midnight in Tokyo. Because the data arrive 30 minutes after the New York cash equity open, the reaction lands in a live US session rather than in thin pre-market trading, unlike the 8:30 am ET releases such as CPI and the jobs report.

The report is published on the Census Bureau’s New Residential Sales page as a PDF and in machine-readable form, with a parallel press statement from HUD. There is no lock-up for journalists in the way there is for some other indicators, and the data are also loaded into the Federal Reserve’s FRED database shortly after publication. Every release names the date of the next one, which is how the schedule above is confirmed.

Historical data

Recent published readings, in seasonally adjusted annual rate terms. Preliminary estimates are shown as first reported, so some differ from the revised figures in later releases.

Source: US Census Bureau and HUD, Monthly New Residential Sales. The June 2026 report shows sales 5.6% below the June 2025 rate of 665,000, so the market entered the second half of 2026 running slower than a year earlier while inventory stayed close to the highest months’ supply readings since 2009.

How do markets react?

New home sales is a medium-impact release. It rarely moves the whole market on its own, because the confidence intervals are wide and traders know it, but it moves specific corners of the market reliably and it feeds the wider debate about interest rates.

Homebuilder shares are the clearest channel. A weak print, especially one paired with rising inventory and falling median prices, tends to hit builders and the suppliers that sell into new construction, because it implies more discounting and thinner margins. A strong print does the reverse. Mortgage lenders, estate agency platforms and building materials companies move in sympathy.

Treasury yields react when the number changes the story about growth or Federal Reserve policy. Housing is the most rate-sensitive part of the US economy, so a run of weak housing data strengthens the argument that policy is restrictive and can pull the two-year yield lower, while a surprise burst of activity does the opposite. The dollar usually follows yields, which means the pound and the euro can move a fraction of a cent against the dollar in the minutes after the release. Asian markets see the reaction the following morning through the dollar and US futures rather than in real time.

Two caveats matter for anyone trading the number. First, the revision to the previous month is often larger than the change in the new month, so the market sometimes reacts to a rewritten past rather than a new present. Second, this report competes for attention: when it lands in the same week as the PCE inflation figures or a Federal Reserve decision, the housing data are usually the smaller story.

What It Means for Your Money

Mortgages. New home sales does not set mortgage rates, but it tells you what rates are doing to buyers. When sales sag and unsold inventory builds, builders in the United States commonly respond with incentives, including buying down the mortgage rate on a new-build purchase. UK and European buyers do not get that mechanism, but the same signal feeds global bond yields, which influence fixed mortgage pricing in the UK and much of the euro area.

Savings rates. Sustained housing weakness is one of the arguments for lower central bank rates. If the Federal Reserve eventually cuts, savings and money market yields fall with it, and other central banks often follow within months. Locking a fixed-rate savings product looks more attractive when housing data are pointing to a slowdown.

Jobs. Residential construction employs a large number of people directly, plus more in materials, transport and fitting out. A long stretch of weak new home sales usually shows up later as fewer construction hours and fewer hires, which is one reason the Federal Reserve treats housing as an early warning indicator.

Prices. Housing costs, including rents, are the single biggest component of US inflation measures. More new supply arriving into a soft market eases shelter costs over time, which slowly drags on headline inflation.

Pensions and investments. If you hold a global tracker fund, you own homebuilders, banks and materials companies through it. You will not notice one month’s data, but a multi-year housing downturn shows up in the earnings of those sectors, and in bond funds, which gain in value when yields fall.

The pound, dollar and euro. Weak US housing data that shifts rate expectations tends to soften the dollar, making a UK or European holiday to the United States marginally cheaper and imported dollar-priced goods slightly less expensive.

Related economic events

• US CPI Report: monthly consumer price inflation, where shelter costs carry the largest single weight.
• US Jobs Report: monthly payrolls and unemployment, including construction employment.
• US GDP Report: quarterly growth, with residential investment as a swing factor.
• US PCE Report: the inflation measure the Federal Reserve targets, published near the end of each month alongside this release.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the next US New Home Sales release?

Tuesday August 25, 2026 at 10:00 am ET (3:00 pm London), covering sales in July 2026. The following release is on September 24, 2026.

What time is the report released?

Always 10:00 am Eastern Time, which is 3:00 pm in London, 4:00 pm in central Europe and 11:00 pm in Hong Kong and Singapore.

How often is it published?

Monthly, roughly 24 to 26 days after the month it covers, with revisions to the previous three months included in each release.

Where can I find the official release?

On the US Census Bureau’s New Residential Sales page, with a companion statement from HUD and the data mirrored in the Federal Reserve’s FRED database.

What is the consensus forecast for the August 25, 2026 release?

A consensus forecast for the July 2026 data has not yet been published. Surveys of economists by Reuters and Bloomberg typically appear in the week before each release, and the prior reading was 628,000 for June 2026.

How does new home sales affect interest rates?

It does not set rates directly, but housing is the most interest-rate-sensitive part of the US economy, so persistent weakness supports the case for rate cuts and persistent strength supports holding rates higher for longer.