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Economy in Brief
U.S. Mortgage Applications Continue to Weaken
The MBA Loan Applications Index fell 1.2% (-54.5% y/y) in the week ended May 20...
German Climate Reading Continues to Skid Toward the Abyss
Germany's GfK consumer climate reading improved ever so slightly in June...
U.S. New Home Sales Plunge in April as Prices Jump
The new home sales market is unraveling...
U.S. Energy Prices Rise Further
Retail gasoline prices increased to $4.59 per gallon in the week ended May 23...
S&P Flash PMIs Are Mixed in May As Manufacturing Erodes Slowly
Among the early reporting countries in Europe and Japan, the S&P PMI readings for May tilt toward weakness...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
State Coincident Indexes in April 2022
State Labor Markets in April 2022
Profits & Margins Plunge In Q1: Expect More Margin Contraction As Fed Squeezes Inflation
The Many Links of Inflation Cycle: Hard Landing Is Needed to Crack Them
Peak Inflation and Fed Policy: A Relationship which Should Worry the Fed and Scare Investors
by Tom Moeller September 26, 2012
The new home sales market cooled off last month.New home sales in August slipped 0.3% to 373,000 from 374,000 during the prior month, revised from 372,000. The slip compared to Consensus expectations for 380,000 sales. The shortfall was led by a 4.9% (+11.5% y/y) decline in the South which was the fourth drop in the last five months. Sales in the West ticked up just 0.9% (64.6% y/y). Elsewhere, sales were stronger with the Northeast posting a 20.0% m/m increase and rising by more than one half y/y while sales in the Midwest rose 1.8% (16.7% y/y).
The median price of a new single family home increased 11.2% to $256,900 (17.0% y/y) while prices in prior months were revised higher. The average price gained to $295,300 (13.9% y/y) during August and was its highest since July 2008.
The length of time to sell a new home slipped m/m to 8.3 months in August. The inventory of unsold homes remained near the all time low at 141,000 units (-12.4% y/y). This is a 4.5 month supply at the current sales rate, the lowest since late-2005.
The data in this report are available in Haver's USECON database. The consensus expectation figure is from the Action Economics survey and is available in the AS1REPNA database.
U.S. New Home Sales | Aug | Jul | Jun | Y/Y % | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total (SAAR, 000s) | 373 | 374 | 361 | 27.7 | 307 | 321 | 374 |
Northeast | 36 | 30 | 16 | 56.5 | 21 | 31 | 31 |
Midwest | 56 | 55 | 49 | 16.7 | 45 | 45 | 54 |
South | 174 | 183 | 185 | 11.5 | 169 | 173 | 202 |
West | 107 | 106 | 111 | 64.6 | 72 | 74 | 87 |
Median Price (NSA, $) | $256,900 | $231,100 | $231,400 | 17.0 | 224,317 | 221,242 | 214,500 |