Global| Apr 23 2013U.S. New Home Sales Advance As Prices Fall Back
by:Tom Moeller
|in:Economy in Brief
Summary
New home sales increased 1.5% (18.5% y/y) last month to 417,000 (AR) from an unrevised 411,000 during February. The rise roughly matched Consensus expectations for sales of 420,000. Sales were mixed m/m throughout the country. New [...]
New home sales increased 1.5% (18.5% y/y) last month to 417,000 (AR) from an unrevised 411,000 during February. The rise roughly matched Consensus expectations for sales of 420,000. Sales were mixed m/m throughout the country. New home sales in the Northeast rose 20.6% (32.3% y/y) to 41,000 while in the South sales increased 19.4% (8.0% y/y) to 215,000. In the West, sales fell 20.9% to 110,000 but were up roughly one-third y/y. Finally, sales in the Midwest dropped 12.1% (21.4% y/y) to 51,000.
Home prices fell 6.8% (+3.0% y/y) during March to a median of $247,000. That reversed the prior month's gain. The average price of a new home sold fell 9.7% (-1.3% y/y) to $279,900.
Conditions in the new home market remain tight. The inventory of unsold homes has backed up somewhat recently while the months supply of new homes held at 4.4. The length of time to sell a new home remained at 5.0 months, down from the 7.1 month average for all of last year. These figures compare to more than 14 months at the beginning of 2010.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 | Mar | Feb | Jan | Y/Y % | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total (SAAR, 000s) | 417 | 411 | 445 | 18.5 | 366 | 307 | 321 |
| Northeast | 41 | 34 | 33 | 32.3 | 28 | 21 | 31 |
| Midwest | 51 | 58 | 55 | 21.4 | 49 | 45 | 45 |
| South | 215 | 180 | 214 | 8.0 | 195 | 168 | 173 |
| West | 110 | 139 | 143 | 37.5 | 94 | 72 | 74 |
| Median Price (NSA, $) | 247,000 | 264,900 | 245,400 | 3.0 | 242,258 | 224,317 | 221,242 |
Tom Moeller
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Prior to joining Haver Analytics in 2000, Mr. Moeller worked as the Economist at Chancellor Capital Management from 1985 to 1999. There, he developed comprehensive economic forecasts and interpreted economic data for equity and fixed income portfolio managers. Also at Chancellor, Mr. Moeller worked as an equity analyst and was responsible for researching and rating companies in the economically sensitive automobile and housing industries for investment in Chancellor’s equity portfolio. Prior to joining Chancellor, Mr. Moeller was an Economist at Citibank from 1979 to 1984. He also analyzed pricing behavior in the metals industry for the Council on Wage and Price Stability in Washington, D.C. In 1999, Mr. Moeller received the award for most accurate forecast from the Forecasters' Club of New York. From 1990 to 1992 he was President of the New York Association for Business Economists. Mr. Moeller earned an M.B.A. in Finance from Fordham University, where he graduated in 1987. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from George Washington University.
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