The U.S. Census Bureau Wednesday morning released data on new single-family home sales for January 2015. Sales ticked down 0.2% month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 481,000 from an upwardly revised December 2014 sales figure of 482,000. The consensus estimate for January called for sales of 471,000. December sales were revised upward by 1,000.

Year over year, January’s seasonally adjusted annual sales rate rose 5.3%, compared with 457,000 a year ago. On an unadjusted basis, 2014 sales totaled an estimated 435,000 homes, up 1.2% from 429,000 in 2013 and the highest total since 2008.

At the peak in 2005, new home sales posted a seasonally adjusted annual rate of nearly 1.4 million.

The Census Bureau also reported that the median sales price for new homes sold in January rose from $268,100 in December to $294,300, and the average sales price slipped from $377,800 to $348,300. At the end of January, the number of new homes for sale slipped from 219,000 in December to 218,000, a supply of 5.4 months at the current sales rate.

In January, 53% of the estimated 36,000 monthly sales were for homes priced at less than $300,000. The rise in January’s median sales price is due to more sales of more expensive homes, including a jump of two points in homes sold in the range of $400,000 to $499,999 and by the same amount in homes sold for $500,000 to $749,999. Sales of homes priced above $750,000 slipped three points in January to 4% of all homes sold in the month.

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