What are your thoughts on this data, released today as well?
WASHINGTON (AP) Sales of new U.S. homes plunged in June, a sign that real estate continues to be a weak spot in the economy.
New home sales fell 8.1 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 406,000, the Commerce Department said Thursday. The report also revised down the May sales rate to 442,000 from 504,000.
Part of my business is housing related so I watch these numbers closely. The housing market has been in a lull for going on the last year. SF starts are in or around 600K SAAR and just haven’t moved. Any improvement in total starts has been driven by MF. Hopefully the recent improvement in the job market (NFP has averaged +270K the last 3 readings while the prior 12 were +190k) will drive household formation. So far that hasn’t caught up. I think we are a year away from a breakout.