Global| Jul 25 2012U.S. New Home Sales and Prices Both Drop
by:Tom Moeller
|in:Economy in Brief
Summary
New home sales fell 8.4% last month to 350,000 from 382,000 in May, earlier reported as 350,000. June sales fell short of consensus expectations for 369,000. A two-thirds plunge in sales in the Northeast left them unchanged y/y. Sales [...]
New home sales fell 8.4% last month to 350,000 from 382,000 in May, earlier reported as 350,000. June sales fell short of consensus expectations for 369,000. A two-thirds plunge in sales in the Northeast left them unchanged y/y. Sales in the South also fell 8.6% (+6.5% y/y) and reversed May's increase. To the upside was a 14.6% (19.6% y/y) rise in sales in the Midwest and a 2.1% gain (36.1% y/y) in the West.
The median price of a new single family home fell to $232,600 (-3.2% y/y). The 1.9% m/m decline was the third drop in four months. The average price fell 1.5% to $273,900 (+0.3% y/y) during June.
The length of time to sell a new home was roughly unchanged m/m at 8.0 months in June versus 14.4 months in early 2010. The inventory of unsold homes remained near the all time low at 144,000 units (-13.8% y/y). This is a 4.9-month supply at the current sales rate and nearly 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 | Jun | May | Apr | Y/Y % | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total (SAAR, 000s) | 350 | 382 | 358 | 15.1 | 307 | 321 | 374 |
| Northeast | 16 | 40 | 32 | 0.0 | 21 | 31 | 31 |
| Midwest | 55 | 48 | 49 | 19.6 | 45 | 45 | 54 |
| South | 181 | 198 | 181 | 6.5 | 169 | 173 | 202 |
| West | 98 | 96 | 96 | 36.1 | 72 | 74 | 87 |
| Median Price (NSA, $) | 232,600 | 237,100 | 236,500 | -3.2 | 224,317 | 221,242 | 214,500 |
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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