New Home Sales Follow Building Permits Lower

he Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development have released New Residential Sales data for February 2011.

Here is a Quick Recap from Reuters...

RTRS-US FEB SINGLE-FAMILY HOME SALES RECORD LOW 250,000 UNIT ANN. RATE (CONS 290,000) VS JAN 301,000 (PREV 284,000)
RTRS-US FEB SINGLE-FAMILY HOME SALES -16.9 PCT VS JAN -9.6 PCT (PREV -12.6 PCT)
RTRS-US FEB HOME SALES NORTHEAST -57.1 PCT, MIDWEST -27.5 PCT, SOUTH -6.3 PCT, WEST -14.7 PCT
RTRS-US FEB NEW HOME SUPPLY 8.9 MONTHS' WORTH AT CURRENT PACE VS JAN 7.4 MONTHS
RTRS-US FEB MEDIAN SALE PRICE $202,100, -8.9 PCT FROM FEB 2010 ($221,900)
RTRS-US HOMES FOR SALE AT END OF FEB 186,000 UNITS VS JAN 186,000 UNITS
RTRS-US FEB MEDIAN SALE PRICE LOWEST SINCE DEC 2003 ($196,000)

No surprises here. The New Home Sales survey is primarily based on a sample of houses selected from building permits. That means we can look to Building Permits data for an indication of New Home Sales to come (not to come). Well....Single-family Building Permits in February were at a rate of 382,000, which is 9.3 percent below the revised January figure of 421,000. New Home Sales simply followed their survey sampling lower.....

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Source: http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/03232011_new_home_sales.asp

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