Newly built homes are rare in urban centers across the U.S., according to a new study by Realtor.com, and the few such properties available carry hefty price premiums that make them so much more expensive to buyers.
At the national level, urban new builds—newly constructed residential properties in densely populated city centers or metropolitan areas—were priced 78.4 percent higher than urban existing homes, researchers found.
That is because just over 10 percent of new-construction homes are for sale in urban ZIP codes, against nearly 30 percent of existing homes. Nearly 80 percent of new-construction homes for sale are in suburban areas, compared to just 55 percent of existing homes. The other categories are rural (1.2 percent of new construction and 3.9 percent of existing homes) and town (8 percent of new construction and 10.7 percent of existing homes)…