Thursday, June 23, 2011

New Home Sales: May 2011

Today, the U.S. Census Department released its monthly New Residential Home Sales Report for May showing a monthly decline with sales falling 2.15% since April but increasing 13.52% above the level seen a year earlier to a historically low 319K SAAR units.

These results, continue to indicate that the nation's housing markets are firmly entrenched in a double-dip and come fully in-line with the other pitiful housing data-points I have outlined in past months.

It's important to recognize that the inventory of new homes has now fallen to a new series low at 166K units, lowest level seen in in at least 47 years while the median number of months for sale increased to 9.2.

The monthly supply declined to 6.2 months while the median selling price declined 3.43% and the average selling price declined a notable 5.23% from the year ago level.

The following chart show the extent of sales decline to date (click for full-larger version).