New home sales at 7-month high in November
A construction worker works on the framework for a single family home currently under construction in Los Angeles, California October 18, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Fred Prouser
WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New U.S. single-family home sales rose to a seven-month high in November and the months' supply of houses on the market was the lowest in 5-1/2 years, adding to signs of a budding recovery in the sector.
The Commerce Department said on Friday sales rose 1.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted 315,000-unit annual rate. Octobers' sales pace was revised up to 310,000 units from the previously reported 307,000 units.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast sales at a 313,000-unit rate. In the 12 months through November, new home sales were up 9.8 percent.
Coming on the heels of data this week showing a rise in sales of previously owned homes and surge in housing starts, the report implied a recovery was starting to take shape in the housing market.
The housing market, which triggered the 2007-09 recession, remains constrained by an oversupply of unsold homes, falling prices and high unemployment.
Sales were up in two of the four regions, with the number of homes sold in the Midwest the highest since November 2009.
The median sales price for a new home fell 3.8 percent to $214,100 last month. Compared to November last year, the median price was down 2.5 percent.
There were a record low 158,000 new homes on the market last month and at November's sales pace, it will take 6 months to clear them - the shortest amount of time since March 2006. That compared to 6.2 months in October.
A 6-month supply is generally considered ideal, with higher readings indicating steep price declines.
(Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
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U.S. new single-family home sales in November are pointing toward a record low in sales for the year.
Sales of new single-family homes in November were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 315,000, according to estimates released Friday by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
If the trend holds through December, the 2011 total will below the 323,000 homes sold in 2010, the lowest number in records dating back to 1963.
Economists estimate that 700,000 new homes — more than double the estimated 2011 total — need to be sold to sustain a healthy market.
The November sales figure is 1.6 per cent above the revised October rate of 310,000 and is 9.8 per cent above the November 2010 estimate of 287,000, the government said.
Sales of new homes are only 10 per cent of the housing market, but they have a big economic impact because each one creates roughly three jobs for a year, the U.S. National Association of Home Builders estimates.
The median sales price of new houses in November was $214,100; the average price was $242,900. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of November was 158,000. This represents a supply of 6.0 months at the current sales rate.
From Bloomberg:
Weakest Year
Still, 2011 may surpass last year as the weakest ever for new-home sales. Demand is on pace to reach 304,000 this year, less than the 323,000 in 2010 that was the lowest since data- keeping began, according to Bloomberg calculations.
Sales of previously owned homes, which make up about 94 percent of the market, rose 4 percent to a 4.42 million annual pace, the most since January, the National Association of Realtors said this week. The group revised down figures going back to 2007 by an average 14 percent, putting them more in line with other measures of demand.
New-home sales, which are tabulated when contracts are signed, have lost their ability to forecast the broader market as demand shifts to previously owned houses. Purchases of existing houses are calculated when a deal closes about a month or two later.
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