February New Home Sales Rise

As reported by CNNMoney.com - "New home sales in surprise rebound":

Sales of newly constructed homes unexpectedly rose in February, rebounding nearly 5% after sinking to the lowest level on record in January, according to a government report released Wednesday.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported that new home sales rose 4.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 337,000 in February from a revised 322,000 in January. The was the first increase since July, and it comes after sales tumbled to all-time lows in recent months.

Economists were expecting a sales rate of 300,000, according to consensus estimates compiled by Briefing.com.

Median sales price tanks year over year:

The report also showed that the median sales price of new houses sold in February was $200,900, down 18% from $245,300 a year ago.

Inventory levels:

The estimated number of new homes for sale at the end of February was a seasonally adjusted 330,000. At the current sales pace, it would take more than a year to sell through that number of new homes, according to the report.

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On Monday the National Association of Realtors said that existing home sales rose 5.1% in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.72 million units from a rate of 4.49 million in January.

Last week, the Commerce Department reported that initial construction of new homes surged 22% in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 583,000, up from a revised 477,000 in January. It was the first time housing starts increased since June, when they rose 11%.

It's Spring, the weather is improving, and so are the housing numbers. Will this be a fleeting Spring bump or have we found a bottom in many markets?

New Home Sales Report for October 2008 - Record Low Sales

As reported by CNNMoney.com - "New home sales fall to near 18-year low":

Sales of newly constructed homes slumped in October to an annual rate not seen since 1991, according to government figures released Wednesday.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported that new home sales fell to an annualized rate of 433,000 in October. That's down 5.3% from the revised 457,000 annual rate recorded in September, and off more than 40% from a year ago.

What was expected:

October's sales pace was well below the consensus forecast of 450,000, according to economists surveyed by Briefing.com. And it was the lowest number since January 1991, when the sales rate was 401,000.

The number of new homes on the market decreased in October to an estimated 381,000 from 414,000 in September. At the current sales pace, it would take more than 11 months to sell through the inventory.

Median home sales price continues to decline:

The median sales price of new houses sold in October was $218,000, down from $218,400 the month before. It was the lowest level since June 2004, when the median home price was $215,700.

More bad news for all things centered around real estate jobs. More bad news knowing that the housing crisis remains in full swing.

Good news that this lack of new home building / construction will ultimately lead towards lower housing inventory levels. Until we see lower inventory levels, we will continue to have a housing crisis.

Nonetheless, these numbers have been steadily trending down and positively indicate that the repair process is taking place.

New Home Sales Report - Housing Data for September 2008

As reported by Bloomberg - "U.S. New-Home Sales Unexpectedly Rise as Prices Drop":

What was expected:

Economists had forecast new home sales would drop to a 450,000 annual pace from an originally reported 460,000 rate the prior month, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 59 economists. Forecasts ranged from 400,000 to 501,000.

The good news (sort of):

Sales of new houses in the U.S. unexpectedly rose in September from a 17-year low, propelled by a drop in prices ahead of the latest turmoil in financial markets.

Purchases increased 2.7 percent to an annual rate of 464,000 from 452,000 the prior month that was less than previously estimated, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. The median sales price decreased to a four-year low.

The bad news:

The median price of a new home decreased 9.1 percent from a year earlier to $218,400, the lowest since September 2004.

Sales were down 33 percent from September 2007, the Commerce report showed.

More importantly, in our opinion, were the numbers reported in the housing starts and building permits report released on October 17th since both numbers were down significantly and will ultimately play a future roll in helping to reduce these huge inventory levels.

Nonetheless, the new home sales numbers released today do provide for a small bright spot amongst all of the housing doom and gloom. In looking back at the recent housing numbers released in October, providing insight to September's housing data, we believe that there are really two plausible conclusions for some of the better than expected numbers:

Yes, despite the economic meltdown, there is some stabilization that is slowly beginning to occur and we also believe that there was a rush to get purchases pushed through in September in consideration of the elimination of the FHA down payment assistance program, beginning on October 1, 2008.

Perhaps a different story will be told with the holiday season shortly upon us!