New Home Sales – Don’t Just Read the Headlines
by Tom on May 24, 2007
in Uncategorized
The New Home Sales for April were just released. Here’s what the headline said:
Sales of new single family homes jumped by 16.2% in April!
Here’s the “rest” of the story:
The median price dropped by 11.1% compared to March of this year.
The median price dropped by 10.9% compared to April of 2006 (the biggest year over year decline since 1970)
The actual number of homes sold in April is down 8% from April 2006.
It appears, at first glance, that there’s a “fire sale” going on in the new home market. It’s another sign that all is not well in the economy (see my previous post about the stock market and interest rates).
It also goes to show you can’t get an accurate reading on the news by just reading the headlines!
