Recent Updates
- Lebanon: Public Debt (Nov-Prelim)
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- Germany: GfK Consumer Climate Survey (Jan)
- France: Registered Unemployment and Vacancies (Dec), Monthly Household Survey (Jan)
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Economy in Brief
U.S. FHFA House Price Index Rose Further in November
The FHFA House Price Index increased 1.0% m/m in November...
U.S. Energy Prices Are Mixed
The price of regular gasoline rose to $2.39 per gallon (-4.5% y/y) in the week ended January 25...
U.K. Retail Survey Shows Extreme Weakness
The CBI U.K. retail volume survey shows dramatically weakened data for January and for the February outlook...
Texas Manufacturing Activity Weakens Further During January
The Dallas Fed reported that its Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey General Business Activity Index fell to 7.0 during January...
Chicago Fed National Activity Index Improves During December
The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's National Activity Index increased to 0.52 during December...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller January 29, 2009
Last month, sales of new single-family homes fell to their lowest level in the series' history which dates back to 1963. The 14.7% m/m December decline to 331,000 followed a downwardly revised November. December-to-December, new home sales were off by half and down by three-quarters from their peak during July 2005. They fell short of Consensus expectations for 400,000.
December-to-December sales fell hard around the country, down by one-third to one-half.
The median price for a new single-family home continued to fall hard to $206,500 as homebuilders attempted to move inventory. In fact, that effort has been quite successful and the inventory of unsold homes is down by more than one-quarter during the last year to its lowest level since 2003. In each of the country's regions, the inventory is down by roughly one-quarter during the last year.
The month's supply of new homes for sale surged to 12.9, a record.
New Adjustable-Rate Mortgages and the Libor Surprise From the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland can be found here.
US New Homes | December | November | Y/Y (%) | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total Sales (SAAR, 000s) | 331 | 388 | -44.8 | 479 | 768 | 1,049 |
Northeast | 28 | 39 | -50.0 | 35 | 64 | 64 |
Midwest | 51 | 54 | -31.1 | 69 | 118 | 161 |
South | 181 | 206 | -46.0 | 264 | 408 | 559 |
West | 71 | 89 | -47.4 | 111 | 178 | 266 |
Median Price (NSA, $) | 206,500 | 219,700 | -9.3 | 228,350 | 243,742 | 243,067 |