Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Monday, September 1st.

Today on Forbes, here's why old homes suddenly cost more than new ones.

Something bizarre is happening in the U.S. housing market.

At the national level, new homes are selling for less than existing ones.

In June, the median existing home sold for $441,500,

while the median new home went for $401,800.

Since 1968, 690 months in total, new homes have only undercut existing ones 22 times. From June 1982 to May

2024, it happened just twice, and the 1990s never saw the inversion happen at all. Yet, since

May 24, this flipped market has popped up seven times, happening every month from April through June

of this year, the month with the latest data we've got.

June's gap was a record breaker.

New homes sold for 9% less than existing ones, smashing the previous record 3% discount.

When an economist sees numbers that look backward, the instinct is to look for what's

missing. Eric Fox, chief economist at Veros Real Estate Solutions, a firm that provides

housing market analytics and forecasting, puts it this way. If a chart doesn't make sense,

there's usually a hidden variable that explains it. A good place to start is to look at the particulars,

if only to understand what isn't happening.

Kevin Weingarten has a buyer under contract for a three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath

townhome in Chalfant, Pennsylvania.

It's 30 miles from Center City, Philadelphia.

Far enough from Trenton, the closest New Jersey transit station

to New York City, it avoids the long-distance commuter crowd, keeping the price down. Built by

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