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September 25, 2008

Just In: New Home Sales Data Worse Than Expected

NHSAug08Sales-01.jpg
WASHINGTON (AP) — Government data show sales of new homes dropped sharply in August, falling to the slowest pace in 17 years. The average sales price fell by the largest amount on record, too. The Commerce Department said Thursday that new homes sales fell by 11.5 percent in August to a seasonally adjusted annual sales rate of 460,000 units, the slowest sales pace since January 1991. It was a much bigger sales decline than the small 1 percent drop that economists had been expecting. The average price of a new home sold in August dropped by a record amount of 11.8 percent to $263,900, compared to the July average of $299,100. The median price was also down, falling 5.5 percent to $221,900.

Update: Check out this graph and commentary from Calculated Risk!

New Home Sales Plummet in August, Prices Tumble [AP]




Posted by Brownstoner at 10:14 AM | Comments (19)
Categories: Market

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Comments

I do not care for most new homes.

Posted by: BrooklynGreene at September 25, 2008 10:23 AM

Oh, but I do like your snazzy graphic big red down arrow!

Posted by: BrooklynGreene at September 25, 2008 10:24 AM

don't bother clicking on the link -- that's the whole article!

Posted by: z at September 25, 2008 10:26 AM

Average price down 11% and median price down 5.5% in one month. That's a pretty sever drop.

Posted by: dosteov at September 25, 2008 10:56 AM

The majority of newly built homes across the country are crap. Invest in bricks and brownstone. Go Brooklyn!!!

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at September 25, 2008 11:06 AM

That said, a 10-12% price drop is what you normally see during NORMAL times anyway. Get back to me when the number is 20%.

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at September 25, 2008 11:07 AM

That should be next week at this rate.

Posted by: SnarkSlope at September 25, 2008 11:50 AM

So if median new home price is $221,000k -

then ther must be plenty of new homes for about $200k because there are plenty of them in exurbia for $400k+.

So where are these new $200K homes and what do they look like , made of?

Posted by: Petebklyn at September 25, 2008 12:05 PM

How long before Brownstone Brooklyn starts feeling the pinch? Or has it started already?

Posted by: qis4quincy at September 25, 2008 12:11 PM

It's definitely started, but it's still in the denial phase where buyers haven't come around to the fact they will have to lower prices and sellers are skittish about catching a falling knife.

Posted by: Whoops Johnny at September 25, 2008 12:40 PM

Pete...you don't want to know!!!

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at September 25, 2008 12:41 PM

Yay! More affordable housing on the way! Festivus for the rest of us!

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at September 25, 2008 12:45 PM

"So where are these new $200K homes and what do they look like , made of?"

They are primarily in Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, and Florida. The places where much of this housing decline is attributable to. There is no comparisson to NYC so these statistics are meaningless to us...

Its like saying each of the CEO's of the 80 local Burger Kings earn 75K a Year compared to the CEO of Nike earning 8 Mil. Therefore the median income of CEO's is 80K.

Posted by: newsouthsloper at September 25, 2008 12:46 PM

They are definitely NOT in NV, FL, AZ and NM. They are in Arkansas, Mississippi, ND, SD, TN, KY

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at September 25, 2008 1:02 PM

...I believe that's been labled "Extremistan"...where exceptions skew data to the point of uselessness....or danger.

Good stuff newsouthsloper

Posted by: moreteasir at September 25, 2008 1:05 PM

Don't you people watch House Hunters on HGTV? Most of the episodes are in FL, NV, and the mid west. People buying new construction homes in the 150K to 400K range, for the most part. Last night's was a couple buying in Orlando. They bought a 2,500 square foot house with large lot and a big pool for 380K I believe.

Posted by: shillstoner at September 25, 2008 3:14 PM

I bet the visitor count to this site has dropped far more precipitously than those housing numbers since you banned The What (the day of or day before his predictions seemed to be coming true).

Posted by: Sunset Parker at September 25, 2008 5:25 PM

Sunset Parker,
Please. Re: the "what". The new guy who took that moniker was not "The What tick tick tick" unless we are dealing with the many faces of Eve. It seems no one ever really called the guy posing as The What out on his lousy performance. But, I guess, enough people wanted to be convinced (or were too new to the site to have a basis for comparison) to bother arguing with the new guy as though he were Ye Olde What. I kind of miss Ye Olde's typos and rants...even at that time "back in" 2007 there were a couple of guys trying to simulate The What and sign as him.

I wonder if the younger sounding "what" person signing on really was Ye Olde but somehow completely medicated. Naw...I doubt it. Not likely.

I wonder why the original The What and the new "what" do not try to log back in under another name...

Were they just the Brownstoner staff trying to up site traffic? Would explain how the style changed (when they got a new intern) but the themes were fairly consistent...H'mmm...I know, I know...this was suggested before...

Posted by: BrooklynGreene at September 25, 2008 7:25 PM

Oh, one note, look at that graph and reflect for a moment how many drekky houses were thrown up all over (and on) this country in the last bunch of years to provide the fodder for such voluminous sales! UGH!

It's sad what is happening. In Rhode Island where there had been little housing stock added since the big D Depression, there was just a little dumping of new housing on the market, BUT, it has been more the fallout from middle class, lower middle class and lower income people either refinancing or buying existing homes and then going into foreclosure that is hitting the state hard. Aside from all the offshoring of jobs and the corruption in RI that has led to unemployment, wasted funds and lack of tax dollars for programs, etc. leading to poverty, leading to people pulling down street signs, stop signs, copper gutters (friends of ours lost theirs twice to scavangers), etc. to sell for scrap, now, with all sorts of semi-decent homes sitting empty, scavanger are wrecking them while they rip out copper pipes and other items...terrible...the fall of Rome. Ach!

Posted by: BrooklynGreene at September 25, 2008 7:34 PM

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