Maybe They Should Try "Buy One Get One Free"?

I was traveling today / am traveling tomorrow, thus the delay / light posting.

Barry from the The Big Picture details the latest new homes sales datapoint (i.e. IGNORE the media):

Another month, another disastrous housing data point:

Sales of new one-family houses in April 2009 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 352,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 0.3 percent (±14.5%)* above the revised March rate of 351,000, but is 34.0 percent (±11.0%) below the April 2008 estimate of 533,000.

The median sales price of new houses sold in April 2009 was $209,700; the average sales price was $254,000. Median prices of a new home decreased 14.9%

The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of April was 297,000. This represents a supply of 10.1 months at the current sales rate.

Also very telling that the homes that are selling appear to have been massively discounted (i.e. new homes priced under $150k have actually held up pretty well).

New Houses Sold by Sales Price


Source: Census