The Housing Chronicles Blog: New home sales fall by 1.8% nationally but up slightly in the West

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

New home sales fall by 1.8% nationally but up slightly in the West

The Commerce Dept. has released their latest statistics on the new housing market, which shows a 1.8% decline to an annualized rate of 590,000 units -- the lowest level seen since February of 1995, while the median sales price dropped by 2.7% to $244,100. From an AP story via MSNBC:

The number of unsold homes on the market at the end of the month represented a 9.8 months’ supply at the February sales pace, the same as in January. That was the highest inventory level in more than 26 years and reflects the fact that increased numbers of mortgage foreclosures are dumping even more homes on an already glutted market.

Sales dropped the most in the Northeast, falling by 40.6 percent. Sales were also down in the Midwest, dropping by 6.4 percent, but posted gains in the South of 5.7 percent and 0.7 percent in the West....

Analysts said that housing is being hurt currently by tighter lending conditions as banks react to soaring mortgage defaults and the reluctance of prospective buyers to make a decision, fearing that prices have further to fall.

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