by Calculated Risk on 9/25/2010 06:46:00 PM

As part of the new home sales report, the Census Bureau reported that the median price for new homes fell to the lowest level since 2003.

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

This graph shows the median and average new home price.

Some analysts pointed to the slight recovery in the median and average new home prices last year and into 2010 as evidence of the beginning of a recovery.

However in August, new home prices fell to the lowest level since 2003.

The second graph shows the percent of new home sales by price.

Over 52% of all home sales were under $200K in August - the highest percentage since 2003. (update: nemo notes the the median is over $200K in the first graph - this is an issue with rounding).

And 82.6% of new home sales were under $300K - the highest percentage under $300K since August 2002. Only 17.4% of new homes sales were over $300K in August.

To summarize: Not only are new home sales near record lows (slightly above the record in May 2010 on a seasonally adjusted annual rate basis), but the median prices are back to 2003 levels. And there are very few homes being sold above $300K.