New Home Sales At 6-month Low
Home sales
The U.S. Commerce Department reported today that August new-home sales fell 2.3 percent, to a six-month low in August. This marks the fourth straight monthly decline for new home sales.
New-homes sales are on track for the worst year since the government began keeping records a half century ago!
National Association of Home Builders has said that while new homes represent less than one-fifth of the housing market, they have an outsize impact on the economy. Each home built creates an average of three jobs for a year and generates about $90,000 in taxes.
Housing Starts Fall in August
New home starts fall
housing market
The Commerce Department said today that housing starts in August decreased the most since April, down 5.0 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 571,000 units. Plus, July’s starts were also revised down to a 601,000 unit pace, which was previously reported as a 604,000 unit rate.
New housing starts are now running less than one third of their rate during the housing boom. Read more 
New Home Starts Fall
new home starts
The Commerce Department reported this morning that housing starts fell about 5.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 575,000 in February. Zach Pandl, a Nomura Securities Economist wrote in a note to clients: “The decline in February likely reflected, at least in part, inclement heavy snow across much of the country. Although the February starts report was slightly better than expected, in our view, the construction recovery more broadly remains very disappointing, and yesterday’s decline in homebuilder sentiment suggests firms see little reason for optimism about the outlook.”
Sacramento California attorney
Housing Inventory At Historic Lows
San Diego home
I do believe that the housing inventory is a historical lows.
But it is probably equal to the demand – which currently is close to zero! Anyone who wanted a house – bought a house.
And many of those that want to sell (mid to upper end homes) – can’t.
And currently, in San Diego, there is a very very small net migration in, but very small. This doesn’t produce any kind of meaningful demand for new single family housing.
Sacramento real estate brokers
New Home Sales Increase
new home sales
In my prior post (home sales), I noted that existing home sales for October had increased. Now, for new home sales, just a short time ago, the Commerce Department reported sales of new one-family homes rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 430,000, or by 6.2 percent from September’s revised 405,000 rate. Read more
NEW SINGLE-FAMILY HOME CONSTRUCTION DECLINES 3.5 PERCENT IN JUNE
Construction of new, single-family homes across the country as reflected by issued building permits in June declined 3.5 percent to 613,000 units, compared with 635,000 units in May, according to the latest data from the U.S. Dept. of Commerce. Nationwide, total new home construction in June was at 1,091,000 units, 11.6 percent higher than the revised May rate of 978,000, but 23 percent below June 2007. Housing starts were up 0.9 percent in the West.