U.S. New-Home Sales Fell 14.5% in March

Wall Street Journal ^ | April 23, 2014 | Sarah Portlock And Ben Leubsdorf

[John W]

WASHINGTON—Sales of newly built homes plunged in March, the latest sign of a faltering U.S. housing market that has struggled to maintain its momentum in the last year.

New-home sales dropped 14.5% from February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 384,000, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. February's rate was revised up slightly to 449,000.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Zillow as my house up about $10,000 from last year but overall since 2006 its down about $50,000. The Atlanta burbs got hit pretty hard.

[Vaduz]

Democrat recovery program in action.

[VanShuyten]

“Its all bad right now. Well unless you are my brother in law with a mini mansion in Fairfax County, VA which is one of the hot spots”

Five years ago, we bought a house in Fairfax County for $375,000 - overpriced for the house, but OK for Fairfax. The value dropped to $350,000 the next year, but is now assessed at $410,000, with few improvements. The housing market here is crazy and will stay crazy as long as the government continues to expand at the rate it has been.

[Steven Scharf]

Portland Press Herald Maine home sales rise nearly 13 percent April 22, 2014 Home sales in Maine increased 12.6 percent last month, continuing a year-long stretch of rising sales and bucking a drop in sales nationally. . . . According to the National Association of Realtors, sales of existing single-family homes fell 7.3 percent across the country last month. The national median sale price rose 7.4 percent, to $198,200. Sales in the Northeast dipped 4.8 percent, while the region’s median sale price increased 3.2 percent, to $244,700. http://www.pressherald.com/news/Maine_home_sales_rose_12_6_percent_in_March_.html I have never understood why they break out new home sales from existing home sales. The total of both is the real picture of the market locally or nationally. Yes, you might want to list them as separate entities, but highlighting one over the other gives a distorted picture of the economy.

[Steven Scharf]

Hate it when things don’t post correctly.

Portland Press Herald
Maine home sales rise nearly 13 percent
April 22, 2014

Home sales in Maine increased 12.6 percent last month, continuing a year-long stretch of rising sales and bucking a drop in sales nationally.

. . .

According to the National Association of Realtors, sales of existing single-family homes fell 7.3 percent across the country last month. The national median sale price rose 7.4 percent, to $198,200.

Sales in the Northeast dipped 4.8 percent, while the region’s median sale price increased 3.2 percent, to $244,700.

http://www.pressherald.com/news/Maine_home_sales_rose_12_6_percent_in_March_.html

I have never understood why they break out new home sales from existing home sales. The total of both is the real picture of the market locally or nationally. Yes, you might want to list them as separate entities, but highlighting one over the other gives a distorted picture of the economy.

[houeto]

the scrutiny they put us thru...all our tax returns, casino winnings, even my electric and gas bill, even had to write a letter stating why I only work "part time" and even had them check my employment status even though we had w2's and several paycheck statements....

I don't understand what's going on but something is cherry. A while back I bought a new boat. It was only $15K. I had $5K CASH on the table. Credit score almost at 800. Four of the country's biggest lenders declined! The salesman called the Credit Union across the street and told them what just happened. They said to send me over there and they jumped on it like white on rice.

What really sucked is that each decline knocked the heck out of my credit score. That's a bunch of bullcorn.

[RegulatorCountry]

They break it out because housing starts are a leading economic indicator. Declining new home sales leads to declining housing starts, which leads to a decline in employment in the sect,r which leads to an increase in unemployment. A decline in existing home sales doesn’t have quite the same level of repercussion in the broader economy.

[Gritty]

It's the weather. Or likely it's a combination of the poor weather, predatory Kulaks, capitalist wreckers, parasite bosses, foreign spies, and Hooligans.

Yeah. That's it. That's the explanation...

[Steven Scharf]

I don’t have a problem with them breaking it out. I have a problem with the media reporting it separately, as if it is the whole picture and then two days later reporting existing sales as the whole picture as if the other did not exist.