New-home sales sink 10%

Real estate brief

Inman News

Sales of new single-family houses fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 309,000 in January, down 10.2 percent from December's 344,000 rate, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Thursday.

According to data, last month's sales rate was 48.2 percent below the January 2008 estimate of 597,000.

The West saw the weakest sales activity between December and January, with transactions declining 28 percent to a seasonally adjusted 59,000, followed by the South (down 6.5 percent to 172,000) and the Midwest (down 5.6 percent to 51,000). The Northeast, however, reported a 12.5 percent jump to a 27,000 sales rate.

The median sales price of new houses sold nationwide in January was $201,100, down 9.9 percent from December and 13.5 percent from a year ago.

New houses for sale at the end of January hit a seasonally adjusted estimate of 342,000, which represents a supply of 13.3 months at the current sales rate.

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Submitted by on February 27, 2009 - 7:07am.

With new home sales sinking that says there is opportunity for both first time home buyers and for move up buyers. It may sound counter intuitive but those who have always wanted a new home it may be the right time for them.

Letting buyers and sellers know about the opportunities that exist via the Internet allows them to educate themselves and see the opportunities that exist.

I would suggest putting the numbers for all of our areas on our blogs so that people know what is happening.

Visit the blog at: http://www.InternetRealEstateSuccess.com
Real Estate Resources at: http://www.OnlineRealEstateSuccess.com

 
Submitted by Todd Covington on March 1, 2009 - 2:50pm.

These statistics are no surprise. Homes are simply overpriced every where. In the Beaufort SC real estate market, only 82 total single family residences. Until home owners realize that their home was over inflated when they bough it, things will be down.

I personally thing this is good new though. Beazer, Centrex, Portrait, and other builders who build crappy houses, only to leave my town with them, are gone. Hopefully this will help our local home builders and stop the plastic sided trash that has built in by the thousands in my area.

Another good note is I have a ton my traffic on my website reading my real estate blog.

 
Submitted by Alissa Horsten on July 1, 2009 - 10:24pm.

I don't know exactly how the economical situation is now. I would like to buy a house. However, I don't know if it's the best time or i should wait. Can you help?
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