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July New-Home Sales Up Some From Weak June
Rebounding from a weak patch in June, sales of new single-family homes rose 2.8% in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 870,000 units, the U.S. Commerce Department reported on Friday. The July sales pace was 10.2% below a year earlier.
“Despite their normal volatility, these numbers are promising,” said NAHB President Brian Catalde. “Today’s headlines would make you think that no one is buying, or can buy, new homes. That is far from the case. Financing is still available, builders are offering plenty of choices in a variety of price ranges and people are still buying the homes of their dreams.”
“Home builders have been trimming prices and offering non-price sales incentives to bring reluctant home buyers back into the market, and their efforts have brought results, at least for the short term,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders. “However, the tightening of lending standards and problems in the financial sector, which deepened this month, will delay housing’s recovery at least until mid- to late-2008.”
The inventory of new homes for sale edged down slightly to 533,000 in July and the equivalent months’ supply at the July sales pace was 7.5 months, down from 7.7 months in June.
Completed homes for sale comprised 33% of the inventory; units still under construction accounted for a 51% share; and units for-sale that were permitted but not yet started represented 16% of the inventory level. The inventory showed essentially no change from the previous two months.
The median length of time that completed homes were on the market was 6.1 months in July, up from 5.9 months in June.
Regionally, new-home sales in July were up 22.4% in the West and 0.6% in the South. Sales were down 24.3% in the Northeast and 0.9% in the Midwest.
 Attend the Fall Construction Forecast Conference in October
Plan to attend NAHB's Construction Forecast Conference on Oct. 24 at the National Housing Center in Washington, D.C. The conference brings together the nation's premier housing economists and finance experts for an in-depth examination of the economic outlook for the housing industry.
Register by Sept. 7 and save $50 off the regular registration fee.
For more information, visit www.nahb.org/cfc.
 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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