Sales of newly built homes tank as affordability hits buyers

At some point the price is just too high. That may be increasingly the case for potential buyers of newly built single-family homes.

Sales of those homes in November came in well below analysts expectations, down 14% from a year ago. And October’s sales numbers were revised to the lowest level since the start of the pandemic, according to the U.S. Census Bureau count.  

Despite slowing sales and rising mortgage rates, the median price of newly built homes sold in November rose nearly 19% from November 2020. This came...