New Home SalesCENSUS
634K
U.S. Housing Market · 1973 · NBER recession
U.S. Housing Market in 1973
1973 peakOPEC embargofirst cyclical top
Existing SalesNAR
2.33M
Median PriceNAR
$28,900
30Y MortgagePMMS
8.04%
Builders sold 634,000 new homes in 1973 — the post-war buildout's first cyclical peak — before the OPEC oil embargo and 9% mortgage rates ended the run.
The arithmetic is bracing. New construction had risen from 460K in 1966 to 718K by 1972; 1973 set a near-record at 634K despite the autumn embargo. Existing sales reached 2.33M, the highest since NAR began tracking in 1968. The median new home cost $32,500 — up 32% in five years — and 30-year fixed mortgages averaged 8.04%, the start of a long climb that would peak at 16.63% by 1981.