January New Home Sales
Updated 09-Mar-10 19:34 ET
Highlights
- New home sales continued to fall in January as sales slumped to 309,000 from 348,000 in December. The consensus expected sales to increase to 354,000.
- Median new home prices dipped from $215,600 to $203,500 in January as the percent of new homes sold for under $200,000 increased by 4 percentage points to 47%.
Key Factors
- Sales of new homes remain in a payback period following the original end date to the first-time homebuyer tax credit.
- Sales will probably remain low for at least one more month as the supply of new homebuyers takes time to restock.
Big Picture
- Since the deadline for the first-time homebuyer tax credit was extended until April 2010, we expect consumers to feel less rushed into buying a home. Given that interest rates are expected to remain near the zero bound, there is less of an incentive to buy a home before April and new home sales should moderate until the middle of next year.
| Category |
JAN |
DEC |
NOV |
OCT |
SEP |
| Total Sales |
309K |
348K |
362K |
400K |
391K |
| Inventory (months) |
9.1 |
8.0 |
7.8 |
7.3 |
7.7 |
| Median Price Y/Y |
-2.4% |
-6.1% |
-1.1% |
0.9% |
-3.8% |
