Thursday, September 27, 2012

New Home Sales: August 2012

Yesterday, the U.S. Census Department released its monthly New Residential Home Sales Report for August showing a slight monthly decline with sales dropping 0.3% since July but rising 27.7% above the level seen in August 2011 and remaining at an historically low level of 373K SAAR units.

It's important to recognize that the inventory of new homes has now fallen to a new series low at 141K units, lowest level seen in in at least 47 years while the median number of months for sale increased to 8.3.

The monthly supply went flat at 4.5 months while the median selling price increased 16.99% and the average selling price increased 13.88% from the year ago level.

The following chart show the extent of sales decline to date (click for full-larger version).