The Census Bureau’s New Residential Sales Report shows a sales rebound in March.
- New Home Sales: Sales of new single-family houses in March 2018 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 694,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 4.0 percent above the revised February rate of 667,000 and is 8.8 percent above the March 2017 estimate of 638,000.
- Sales Price: The median sales price of new houses sold in March 2018 was $337,200. The average sales price was $369,900.
- For Sale Inventory and Months’ Supply: The seasonally-adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of March was 301,000. This represents a supply of 5.2 months at the current sales rate.
Sales, For Sale, Supply
One can discount the Northeast. It is the smallest region, the region most impacted by weather, and thus the most volatile.
The entire surge in March was in the West. The confidence level is +- 32%. Revisions are likely.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
And this is precisely the problem created by the Fed’s intervention in the markets. Yes, we saved the banking system (corrupt as it may be), but there was never a total market clearing. As far as corporate America and Wall Street are concerned there was no crisis because they were made whole. Now there is no cheap land to be found anywhere you look because real estate was turned into a speculative asset.
Problem is there aren’t enough good places to build any more. At least not where I live. In order to build a development in my county, the builder has to spend a fortune on infrastructure improvements. They have to build and sell small, very expensive units to make a profit.