Benzinga | Dec 23, 2020 04:17PM EST

November New Home Sales Miss Expectations: What You Need to Know

New home sales fell over 11% month-over-month in November, according to the U.S. Census.

What Happened: These figures came in far below expectations, and builder stocks are the ones taking the hit.

Why It's Important: Lennar Corp. (NYSE:LEN), PulteGroup Inc. (NYSE:PHM) and Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE:TOL) all lost more than 2% in Wednesday's session.

As the coronavirus pandemic caused many home owners to invest in new real estate this year, sales are still up 21% in 2020.

Housing sales in the U.S. dropped from July's 979,000 to November's 841,000.

This drop in sales could be attributed to a rise in cost, as the median price of a new home rose 2.2% this year to $335,300.