by Calculated Risk on 2/27/2006 10:26:00 AM

UPDATE: For more on housing, please see my Angry Bear post: Slowing, but Not Crashing.

According to the Census Bureau report, New Home Sales in January were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.233 million. December's sales were revised upwards slightly to 1.298 million.


Click on Graph for larger image.

NOTE: The graph starts at 700 thousand units per month to better show monthly variation.



The Not Seasonally Adjusted monthly rate was 93,000 New Homes sold, slightly higher than the 89,000 in December.

On a year over year basis, January 2006 sales were 1% higher than January 2005.



The median and average sales prices are steady.

The median sales price of new houses sold in January 2006 was $238,100; the average sales price was $291,600.



The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of January was 528,000. This represents a supply of 5.2 months at the current sales rate.

The 528,000 units of inventory is another all time record for new houses for sale. On a months of supply basis, inventory is above the level of recent years.

This report is still reasonably strong, except for the record inventory and months of inventory.