by Calculated Risk on 9/27/2007 09:59:00 AM

According to the Census Bureau report, New Home Sales in August were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 795 thousand. Sales for July were revised down to 867 thousand, from 870 thousand. Numbers for May and June were also revised down.


Click on Graph for larger image.
Sales of new one-family houses in August 2007 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 795,000 ... This is 8.3 percent below the revised July rate of 867,000 and is 21.2 percent below the August 2006 estimate of 1,009,000.


The Not Seasonally Adjusted monthly rate was 68,000 New Homes sold. There were 88,000 New Homes sold in August 2006.

Aug '07 sales were the lowest August since 1995 (63,000).


The median and average sales prices were down sharply. Caution should be used when analyzing monthly price changes since prices are heavily revised and do not include builder incentives.

The median sales price of new houses sold in August 2007 was $225,700; the average sales price was $292,000.


The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of August was 529,000.

The 529,000 units of inventory is slightly below the levels of the last year.

Inventory numbers from the Census Bureau do not include cancellations - and cancellations are once again at record levels. Actual New Home inventories are probably much higher than reported - some estimate are about 20% higher.


This represents a supply of 8.2 months at the current sales rate.

This is another very weak report for New Home sales. This is the first report after the start of the credit turmoil, and, as expected, the numbers are very ugly.

More later today on New Home Sales.