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IPFS News Link • Housing

New Home Sales Decline 9.3% in Report Bloomberg Calls "Solid"

• themaven.net by Mike Mish Shedlock

New home sales decline 9.3% in December and there were significant negative revisions in both October and November. Yet, Econoday labeled the report "solid".

The headline 9.3 percent decline in new home sales for December masks what is actually a solid new home sales report. December's 625,000 annualized rate is the fourth best of the expansion and follows November's revised 689,000 rate which is the very best. And importantly supply moved into the market, up 3.9 percent at 295,000 units. On a sales basis, supply improved to 5.7 months from November's 4.9 months.

Prices were steady in the month with the median edging up 0.1 percent to $335,400 for, however, very modest year-on-year improvement of only 2.6 percent. But prices may have room to move higher given that the sales rate is up 14.1 percent on the year with supply up 15.2 percent.