by Calculated Risk on 9/27/2006 09:57:00 AM

According to the Census Bureau report, New Home Sales in August were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.050 million. Sales for July were revised down to 1.009 million, from 1.072 million. Numbers for May and June were also revised down.


Click on Graph for larger image.
Sales of new one-family houses in August 2006 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,050,000, ... This is 4.1 percent above the revised July rate of 1,009,000, but is 17.4 percent below the August 2005 estimate of 1,271,000.
The Not Seasonally Adjusted monthly rate was 91,000 New Homes sold. There were 110,000 New Homes sold in August 2005.

On a year over year NSA basis, August 2006 sales were 17.3% lower than August 2005. Also, August '06 sales were below August 2004 (102,000) and August 2003 (105,000) sales. This is the lowest August since 2002 when 90,000 new homes were sold.


The median and average sales prices were down slightly. Caution should be used when analyzing monthly price changes since prices are heavily revised.

The median sales price of new houses sold in August 2006 was $237,000; the average sales price was $304,400.


The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of August was 568,000. This represents a supply of 6.6 months at the current sales rate.

The 568,000 units of inventory would have been another record for new houses for sale, except July 2006 was revised up to 570,000.

On a months of supply basis, inventory is above the level of recent years.

This report is very weak, especially considering the strong downward revisions for the previous months.

More later today on New Home Sales and Recessions.