US New Home Sales Dive 7.6% in August
The US Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development reported Monday morning that sales of new homes in August slipped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 609,000, a decrease of 7.6% below the revised July rate of 659,000 and an increase of 20.6% compared with the August 2015 rate of 505,000.
The consensus estimate from a survey of economists expected a rate of around 598,000. The April rate was revised downward by 48,000.
At the peak in Y 2005, new home sales posted a seasonally adjusted annual rate of nearly 1.4-M.
The Census Bureau also reported that the median sales price for new homes sold in August fell by $10,600 from $294,600 in July to $284,000, and the average home sales price fell by $2,200 to $353,600. At the end of August the number of new homes for sale totaled 235,000 and represented a supply of 4.6 months at the current sales rate.
In August, 55% of the estimated 50,000 monthly home sales were sales for homes priced at less than $300,000. The percentage is 3 points higher than the July rate.
Sales of homes priced between $300,000 and $399,999 fell by three points to 20% of all sales.
Sales of homes in the range of $400,000 to $499,999 rose fell from 12% of sales to 10%, and sales rose from 9% to 10% for homes sold in a range of $500,000 to $749,999.
Home sales for properties priced above $750,000 accounted for 5% of all new home sales in August, up from 4% in July.
The increase in sales of lower-priced homes is the primary factor in the sharp drop in median and average prices in August. That may be good news because lower-priced homes are typically the choice of 1st-time buyers.
Monday, the major US stock market indexes finished at: DJIA -166.62 at 18094.83, NAS Comp -48.26 at 5257.49, S&P 500 -18.59 at 2146.10
Volume: Trade was below recent averages with about 755-M/shares exchanged on the NYSE
- Russell 2000: +9.3% YTD
- S&P 500: +5.0% YTD
- NAS Comp: +5.0% YTD
- DJIA +3.8% YTD
HeffX-LTN Analysis for DIA: | Overall | Short | Intermediate | Long |
Bearish (-0.28) | Bearish (-0.42) | Bearish (-0.35) | Neutral (-0.08) |
HeffX-LTN Analysis for SPY: | Overall | Short | Intermediate | Long |
Bearish (-0.26) | Bearish (-0.37) | Bearish (-0.38) | Neutral (-0.04) |
HeffX-LTN Analysis for QQQ: | Overall | Short | Intermediate | Long |
Neutral (0.23) | Neutral (0.22) | Neutral (0.23) | Bullish (0.25) |
HeffX-LTN Analysis for VXX: | Overall | Short | Intermediate | Long |
Bearish (-0.33) | Neutral (-0.07) | Bearish (-0.38) | Very Bearish (-0.54) |
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