US Dec new home sales fell 5.1 pct

Biz.Yahoo/Reuters ^ | January 28, 2004

[Starwind]

US Dec new home sales fell 5.1 pct
Wednesday January 28, 9:59 am ET

 WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - U.S. Commerce Department
reported sales of new single-family homes, seasonally adjusted,
with percent changes from prior month (numbers in 1,000s).
.             Pct   Dec    Nov  (Prev)    Oct    (Prev)   Dec'02
Total Units  -5.1 1,060  1,117   1,082  1,149     1,109   1,052
 By Region:   Pct   Dec    Nov  (Prev)    Oct    (Prev)       
  Northeast  12.2    92     82      72     87        77       
  Midwest     8.7   175    161     179    197       199       
  South      -8.1   501    545     518    540       516       
  West      -11.2   292    329     313    325       317       
Total December sales of new single-family homes rose 0.8
percent from December 2002.
In 1,000s:           Dec    Nov (Prev)    Oct (Prev)
Actual Units Sold     71     79     75     88     84
Sales Prices:                                    
  Mean             261.1  268.7  274.4  243.2  244.0
  Median           197.6  204.3  209.2  192.6  189.2
Note-Actual number of new single-family units sold is not
seasonally adjusted.
Monthly percent changes of total sales, seasonally adjusted,
from prior months as follows:
.                Nov (Prev)    Oct (Prev)    Sep (Prev)
Total Units     -2.8   -2.4    1.8   -2.5   -5.1   -4.5
Number of Months:       Dec    Nov (Prev)    Oct (Prev)
 Supply of Homes        4.3    4.0    4.1    3.9    4.0
1,000 units:            Dec    Nov (Prev)    Oct (Prev)
 End-Month Inventory    374    366    363    362    358
 FORECAST:
 Reuters survey of economists forecast:
 U.S. Dec new home sales annual rate of 1.100 million units
 HISTORICAL COMPARISONS/NOTES:
 U.S. DEC END-MONTH INVENTORY HIGHEST SINCE JUNE 1989 (375,000
UNITS)
 US 2003 HOME SALES +11.5 PCT TO RECORD 1.085 MLN UNITS FROM
2002 973,000 UNITS
 U.S. DEC NORTHEAST HOME SALES RATE HIGHEST SINCE SEPT 2002
(94,000 UNITS)
 US 2003 MEAN HOME SALES PRICE RECORD $244,800, MEDIAN RECORD
$193,400

[Starwind]

The full Commerce Dept report is at NEW RESIDENTIAL SALES IN DECEMBER 2003

[Starwind]

Fyi...

[aodell]

Durable goods orders are down too. But the market is up. Boy when this bubble bursts it's gonna burst real loud.

[templar]

A question for FReeper realtors:

If new home sales are falling why are housing starts soaring? Are there any long term implications for this, one way or the other, or is this just a normal situation for the time of the year?

[Smogger]

I'm not a real estate agent, but if there are no houses for sale (as is the case in So California) how can sales go up or hold steady? You have to have houses to sell and inventories are the lowest in 20 years. Probably why they are trying to build more as fast as they can.

[dawn53]

Just read in our area sales of already existing homes was up.

Our county is about "built out", so there won't be many new homes being sold unless they bulldoze existing real estate and build new.

[Rebelbase]

The Thanksgiving, Christmas, Kwanzaa :-0 and Hanukkah always affect the Real Estate market. December closings usually originate in November and thats Turkey time......too much going on.

Feb. has always been good, so, lets wait and see how that month turns out.