Posted on 09/27/2004 11:01:41 AM PDT by crushelits
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. new home sales jumped a surprising 9.4 percent in August, the fastest acceleration of sales in almost four years, as a fresh dip in mortgage interest rates attracted buyers, a government report showed on Monday.
Sales of new single-family homes climbed to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.184 million units from a downwardly revised 1.082 million units the month before, the Commerce Department (news - web sites) said. It was the sharpest climb since December 2000.
Analysts polled by Reuters were expecting sales to rise to a 1.165 million pace.
Housing remains strong, helped by declining interest rates, economists said.
"People are just in love with homes right now. We are seeing a lot new builds," said Bob Walters, chief economist for Quicken (news - web sites) Loans.
Analysts said there were surprised at the strength of home sales, given the violent storms that rocked Florida in August.
Inventories rose to 404,000 homes available sale, the largest amount since October 1979, but the supply of homes available at the current sales pace dipped to 4.2 months.
(Excerpt) Read more at story.news.yahoo.com ...
This is hugh and series. And the Dems are veryyyy sad!
Man, this is gonna bum sKerry out!
Huh, I was told the economy sux by the MSMDNC. With unemployment out of control at 5.4% and inflation thru the roof and with cracks in new home sales, who do I believe.
Buying a home makes people happy and feel that things are going well. Happy people vote for incumbents.
Maybe their report was a forgery!!!!
The font does look kind of suscpecious, and that proportional spacing....
70% own their own house. They should all vote Republican.
I am sure that wer are going to hear that they are the wrong houses, in the wrong places, for the wrong people.
Too bad they don't list how many new homes were bought by minorities. (another blow to the Kerry libs lies).
The media will follow with a story about how expensive it is for people to pay their mortgage and groceries, and 40 inch Plasma HDTV.
Way too much space for the "m's"....IMHO
Yeah no kidding, wife and I found a house, we setup a time to look at it, BAM next day it was sold already...
The 10% that actually own their own houses probably do. The other 60% who are borrowing their houses from the bank for the next 30+ years are easily spooked into favoring any candidate who can manage scare them into thinking the other guy is putting at risk their ability to meet their large monthly mortgage obligation. ;)
That's true. It would all change if the real estate market crashes. The 10% will still own their houses but the rest will be in pain.
people buying and SELLING homes make for a "good economy" voter. record home sales is as good as record numbers of jobs. August home sales mean Home Depot and furniture stores will be filled with buyers up until Nov.
You got it. Those new homes need carpets, curtains, work by the trades ... there's no way to spin this as anything but a positive indicator.
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