Less to Sales Rise Than Meets the Eye
Less to Sales Rise Than Meets the Eye
According to an article on BusinessWeek Online, Peter Coy states the following:
“Don’t be overly impressed by reports on the Census Bureau report today that sales of new one-family houses in April rose 4.9%, seasonally adjusted, from their level in March. Economist Ian Shepherdson of High-Frequency Economics notes that the Census Bureau simultaneously revised downward sales in the past five months. Also, Shepherdson points out, the number of new homes available for purchase rose nearly 27% from April ‘05, the biggest rise in 33 years, while the year-over-year price increase was under 1%, the smallest increase since 2003. His bottom line: “In short these data stink; don’t be fooled by the headline.”"
The Census Bureau reported the following:
Sales of new one-family houses in April 2006 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,198,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 4.9 percent (±11.5%)* above the revised March rate of 1,142,000, but is 5.7 percent (±9.8%)* below the revised April 2005 estimate of 1,270,000.
The median sales price of new houses sold in April 2006 was $238,500; the average sales price was $298,300. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of April was 565,000. This represents a supply of 5.8 months at the current sales rate.
For the complete news release please follow this link.
New Homes Sales Data from the Census Bureau can be found here.