New Home SalesCENSUS
560K
U.S. Housing Market · 1963
U.S. Housing Market in 1963
origin yearCensus series beginsnew homes only
New MedianCENSUS
$18,000
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The Almanac's record begins in 1963 — the year a President was assassinated, the median new home cost $18,000, and the U.S. Census Bureau began publishing the annual new-home-sales series we still rely on today.
Builders sold roughly 560,000 new single-family homes that year, a figure that would not be exceeded until the boom of the late 1970s. Existing-home sales were not yet centrally tracked — the National Association of Realtors would not formalize its closed-transactions report until 1968. Mortgage rates, similarly, are not part of the Freddie Mac PMMS series until 1971; the mid-1960s prevailing rate was roughly 5.5–6.0%.