by Calculated Risk on 5/24/2006 07:31:00 PM

Asha Bangalore writes: New Home Sales – Headline Is Deceptive, Momentum Is Weak

"Sales of new homes rose 4.9% in April, which appears stronger than predictions. However, revisions to estimates of prior months indicate this perception is incorrect. The levels of sales of new homes in the January-March period were revised down (see table 1). As a result of this, the declines now reported for January and February are larger than the changes reported in March and the gain reported for March is slightly lower. Forecasts for sales of new homes in March were based on the original estimate of sales in March -- 1.213 million units. The level of sales in April at 1.198 million units is now lower than the original estimate reported for March. The main message is that the momentum in the market for new home is weak"

Yeah, the headlines were wrong. Check out her graphs too.