by Calculated Risk on 5/27/2008 10:00:00 AM

According to the Census Bureau report, New Home Sales in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 526 thousand. Sales for March were revised down to 509 thousand.

Click on graph for larger image.

Sales of new one-family houses in April 2008 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 526,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 3.3 percent above the revised March rate of 509,000, but is 42.0 percent below the April 2007 estimate of 907,000.

This graph shows New Home Sales vs. recessions for the last 45 years. New Home sales were falling prior to every recession, with the exception of the business investment led recession of 2001.

New home sales in April were the lowest April since 1991. This is what we call Cliff Diving!

The second graph shows monthly new home sales (NSA - Not Seasonally Adjusted).

Notice the Red columns for 2008. This is the lowest sales for April since the recession of '91.

As the graph indicates, the spring selling season has never really started.

And one more long term graph - this one for New Home Months of Supply.

"Months of supply" is at 10.6 months; the highest level since 1981. Note that this doesn't include cancellations, but that was true for the earlier periods too.

The all time high for Months of Supply was 11.6 months in April 1980.

Once again, the current recession is "probable" and hasn't been declared by NBER.

And on inventory:

The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of April was 456,000. This represents a supply of 10.6 months at the current sales rate.

Inventory numbers from the Census Bureau do not include cancellations - and cancellations are near record levels. Actual New Home inventories are probably much higher than reported - my estimate is just under 100K higher.

Still, the 456,000 units of inventory is below the levels of the last year, and it appears that even including cancellations, inventory is now falling.

This is another very weak report for New Home sales.