The sale of single-family homes fell 8 percent in January 2019, compared with the same period one year earlier.

That’s the fifth consecutive month of year-over-year declines in new-home sales, according to Redfin. But the size of the drop was smaller than in December in all regions except the West, where sales fell by more in January than they did a month before.

"The shrinking size of sales declines, paired with falling interest rates, may be helping to improve builder confidence, which has been on the rise since December," said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin. "Still, buyers understand that the market is shifting in their favor and have become more sensitive to high home prices. That added sensitivity could continue to put a damper on the sales of new homes, which tend to be more expensive than comparable existing ones."

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Table 1: Shows the annual drop in single-family new-home sales in January 2019, and the final two months of 2018 (seasonally adjusted):

The trend in new residential sales the past few months has been similar to that of home sales overall, which fell 7.6 percent year over year in January, the sixth consecutive month of declines.

On a month-over-month basis, sales of new single-family homes nationwide dropped 0.2 percent in January.

Table 2: New-Home Sales Data from Redfin (January 2019)