Thanks to revisions, the Census Bureau's New Home Sales report shows new home sales rose for the third month. The good news, not that it's remotely believable, stops there.

New home sales rose 1.1 percent from a reported 670,000 last month to 640,000 this month. Numbers are at a seasonally-adjusted-annualized rate (SAAR). 

If that looks like a decline not an increase, a revision took last month from 670,000 to 633,000. 

The implication is the reported rise last month was not 7.2 percent but rather 1.8 percent (plus or minus 15.3 percentage points, yes seriously). 

February 2023 Report Numbers

New Home Sales: Sales of new single?family houses in February 2023 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 640,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 1.1 percent (±15.3 percent) above the revised January rate of 633,000, but is 19.0 percent (±12.9 percent) below the February 2022 estimate of 790,000. 

Sales Price: The median sales price of new houses sold in February 2023 was $438,200. The average sales price was $498,700. 

For Sale Inventory and Months' Supply: The seasonally?adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of February was 436,000. This represents a supply of 8.2 months at the current sales rate.