Summit County Market Insider | September 2025

Something bizarre is happening in the U.S. housing market. At the national level, new homes are selling for less than existing ones.

In June, the median existing home sold for $441,500, while the median new home went for $401,800. Since 1968, 690 months in total, new homes have only undercut existing ones 22 times. From June 1982 to May 2024, it happened just twice, and the 1990s never saw the inversion happen at all. Yet, since May 2024, this flipped market has popped up seven times, happening every month from April through June of this year, the latest data we’ve got. June’s gap was a record-breaker: new homes sold for 9% less than existing ones, smashing the previous record 3% discount.

When an economist sees numbers that look backward, the instinct is to look for what’s missing. Eric Fox, chief economist at Veros Real Estate Solutions, a firm that provides housing market analytics and forecasting, puts it this way: if a chart doesn’t make sense, there’s usually a hidden variable that explains it. That’s to say, the numbers aren’t as odd as they look once you find what’s going on under the surface.