Rising building materials costs and low inventory have caused new home sales prices to jump 20% on a year-over-year basis, harming housing affordability and driving down the pace of new home sales. Sales of newly built, single-family homes fell 5.9%, following a significant downward revision of the March estimate, to a 863,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate, according to newly released data by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. “Affordability factors are clearly affecting new home sales,” said NAHB Chairman Chuck Fowke. “A growing number of builders are limiting sales in ... (full story)