Credit, Economy and Financial News from TruckingFactor.com

New Home Sales Dip, But Encouraging Signs Emerge

New home sales dipped slightly last month, but builders are starting to see encouraging signs about the housing market, including a dip in the inventory of new homes for sale. The Commerce Department reported that sales fell 0.6% in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 356,000 from an upwardly revised February rate of 358,000. February's results were adjusted upward by more than 6%. But, as a sober reminder of how far the housing market has fallen, the government said new home sales were down 30.6% from March 2008. The median sales price of a new home fell to $201,400, a 12% drop from a year ago. Prices are likely to remain weak for months as builders continue to clear out their backlog of unsold homes. On a positive note, there were 311,000 new homes for sale at the end of March, down 5.2% from 328,000 in February. But, at the current sales pace, the government said it would still take almost 11 months to exhaust the supply of new homes on the market.

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Date Last Updated: 04/30/2009