new home sales

New Home Sales Tank 11.3% for November 2009

The Economic Mood of the nation could end up being bipolar with the way headlines swing economic indicators. Yesterday the world was all giddy with the surge in existing home sales (with underlying analysis being more sobering) and today's New Home Sales Commerce Report will cause a pre-holiday funk.

Sales of new one-family houses in November 2009 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 355,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

This is 11.3 percent (±11.0%) below the revised October rate of 400,000 and is 9.0 percent (±15.3%)* below the November 2008 estimate of 390,000.

New Home Sales for September 2009

new home sales Sept. 2009

New Home Sales dropped 3.6% from August 2009.

The median price was $204,800 with an average price of $282,600.

At the current rate there are 7.5 months of inventory with 251,000 new homes for sale.

Calculated Risk is calling the difference between new home sales and existing ones the distressing gap, for CR claims this is indicative of distressed sales and the government's first time home buyer credit.

distressing gap

Housing Sales/Price Decline Matches Great Depression Rate

All you have to do is click on any news aggregrator to see the new median home price for resales is $181,300 and new homes, median price is $220,400. Still not really affordable for your average U.S. median income, but a huge improvement.

That said, Bloomberg has the real story on this latest report. The rate at which prices are falling is a steep, steep decline. In fact, it's freefall.

Sales of single-family houses in the U.S. dropped in November by the most in two decades and resale prices collapsed at a pace reminiscent of the Great Depression, dashing speculation the market was close to a bottom.

New Home Sales Plunge, Yet Few State the Obvious

I almost feel like typing ditto, repeat for this Instapopulist news.

U.S. Oct. new-home sales fall 5.3% to 433,000 pace.

the Commerce Department reported Wednesday that sales of new homes fell an estimated 5.3% in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 433,000, the lowest level since 1991.

The real news on these economic indicators is that economists seemingly consistently under estimated the declines.

Now to the meat of these indicators: the price of homes. Prices have declined 7% from one year ago, to a median price of $218,000.

Let's see, the mortgage calculator would give a rough monthly payment of $1500 dollars.

What kind of salary does one need to afford a $1500 dollar house payment?

Pages