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New Home Sales Continue on Downward Path in May
In a continuation of the current market correction, sales of new single-family homes slipped 1.6% in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 915,000 units, which was 15.8% below the pace of a year earlier, according to figures released by the U.S. Commerce Department on June 26.
“Builders are continuing to offer incentives in order to shore up sales and work down their inventories as home buyer demand remains slack,” said NAHB President Brian Catalde.
“The gradual decline in new-home sales is still underway, and we expect this trend to continue as the market approaches the bottom,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders. “We expect home sales to stabilize before the end of the year, followed by a systematic multi-year recovery beginning in 2008.”
The inventory of new homes for sale edged down 1.1% in May to 536,000 units, equivalent to a 7.1 months’ supply at the May sales pace compared to 7.0 months in April.
Completed homes for sale comprised 33% of the inventory; units still under construction represented almost 51% and units for-sale that were permitted but not yet started represented 16% of the inventory level.
Completed homes were on the market a median 5.7 months in May, down from 5.9 months in April.
Regionally, new-home sales in May were down 11.0% in the Northeast, 7.3% in the South and 1.9% in the West. Sales for the month were up by 30.8% in the Midwest.
 Want to Know the Housing Forecast for the Top 100 Metros?
Find out in HousingEconomic.com’s 2007-2008 Metro Forecast (free preview). Get the metro forecast with in-depth analysis, overviews and downloadable Excel tables.
To learn more, visit www.HousingEconomics.com.
 NAHB Kit Gives Builders Back-to-Basics Tips in Cooling Market
With the current cooling of the nation’s housing market expected to persist into next year, NAHB has developed a comprehensive online toolkit geared to providing association members with information that will help them prosper in today’s changing business environment.
To access the “Back to Basics” toolkit, you must be an NAHB member and have a login to www.nahb.org. To create a login, go to www.nahb.org/login or click on the log-in button on the main menu bar.
For assistance, call the NAHB Member Service Center at 800-368-5242.
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