March new home sales dipped about 1 percent from February and nearly 31 percent from a year earlier, the government said Friday.
From the Census Bureau, via The Big Picture:
Some notable stats from the report, via IHS Global Insight:
● The number of unsold new homes fell to 308,000—the 23rd-straight monthly decline.
● The inventory yardstick—the months' supply of new homes at current sales rates— fell half a point to 10.7 months.
● The median months for sale rose 0.4, to 10.2 months, its second highest reading ever (data start in 1963).
● The number of completed new homes for sale, which had set a record high of 199,000 units in January 2008, fell to 149,000 units. Normally, this number would average less than 100,000.
Outlook
New home sales are still declining. However, the decline is flattening. We believe that the bottom is at hand and that sales will begin turning in the second half of this year. We are hardly going out on a limb in making this projection. As previous recessions show, demand for new homes does not evaporate altogether, even in the hardest of times. Moreover, sales remain near record lows.
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