New-Home Sales Tumble In January On Big Decline In West

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

Josh Boak, The Associated Press 10:56 a.m. EST February 24, 2016

WASHINGTON - Americans stepped back from buying new homes in January, as purchases plunged sharply in western states where prices are typically higher.

The Commerce Department said Wednesday that new-home sales fell 9.2% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 494,000. Most of the decline stemmed for a 32.1% in sales in the West. Sales also slipped in the Midwest, while edging up in the Northeast and South.

The pace of buying new homes last month slipped below last year’s sales total of 501,000, a possible sign of mounting price pressures despite low mortgage rates and job gains that have pushed the unemployment rate down to 4.9%. But new-home sales also tend to be a volatile government report with revisions and large swings on a monthly basis.

The decrease complicates the outlook for residential real estate. Rising demand for existing homes had sparked hopes that builders will ramp up construction and sales of new homes will accelerate. The 14.5% increase in new-home sales last year fed into those expectations. But builders have increasingly focused on the more affluent slivers of the market, while the decline in sales listings of existing homes indicate that many Americans may have lost interest in upgrading to a new property.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2016/02/24/new-home-sales-housing-market/80849626/

[Gregorian]

1. Good.

Give the planet a chance to breathe between growth bubbles.

[6chars]

2. in some places the bubble reinflated

[Wellstone ruled]

3. Some of this is Weather related,

and in the Oil Patch,look out below. Here in Vegas the Homes are being completed at the same rate as 2007. Average listing time on used Houses is 40 days,and we are pumping up the balloon again.