Wednesday, March 27, 2013

New Home Sales: February 2013

Yesterday, the U.S. Census Department released its monthly New Residential Home Sales Report for February showing a notable monthly decline with sales falling 4.6% from January but rising 12.3% above the level seen in February 2012 but still remaining at an historically low level of 411K SAAR units.

It's important to recognize that the inventory of new homes appears to be mounting as unsold units totaled 152K, still though near the lowest level seen in in at least 47 years while the median number of months for sale rose to 5.0.

The monthly supply increased to 4.4 months while the median selling price increased 2.88% and the average selling price increased 14.49% from the year ago level.

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