The expiration of the homebuyer tax credit has taken its toll on yet another real estate statistic, new home sales.
Today, the Commerce Department announced that new homes sales fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 300,000 in May, down 32.7 percent from April. This is the slowest new home sales pace ever recorded since the government started tracking this statistic in 1963.
This comes on the heels of two recent reports:
- National Association of Realtors report that sales of existing homes had declined 2.2 percent from April to May.
- National Association of Home Builders report that a June survey evaluating builder confidence for newly built single-family homes had fallen back to February levels with an index of 17. An index of 50 would indicate that more builders view conditions as good rather than poor.
The Commerce Department’s report also showed that the median sales price of new homes sold in May fell 1 percent from April, but 9.6 percent from May 2009, to $200,900. In addition, the government estimated the number of new homes posted for sale in May (213,000) was the lowest level in 40 years and that it would take 8.5 months to sell through the inventory. This is an increase from 5.8 months in April (an inventory of 6 months is considered “normal” for the market).
(Photo courtesy NY Times)