11% jump in new-home sales is biggest since 2000
The third-straight month of rising new-home sales could be the sign we've all been waiting for.
They say everything come in threes, so I'll take the third-straight month of rising new-home sales as a good sign for the housing industry, especially on the heels of last week's report that existing-home sales also were up for the third month in a row.
We are on a roll, and it's a definitely a winning streak.
The Department of Commerce reports that the seasonally adjusted annual rate of new-home sales for June was 384,000, which at an 11% rise from May's rate of 346,000 makes it the biggest jump since December 2000. That number is below the 488,000 from June of last year, but it's still the highest rate since November.
The supply of new homes also is down significantly from the all-time high of 12.4 months in January. The Commerce Department reports the estimate of new houses for sale was at 281,000 at the end of June, an 8.8-month supply.
What this all means in normal-people terms is that the benefits are beginning to outweigh the risks for homebuyers who were thinking about taking the plunge. Between the government's $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit and the high number of foreclosures on the market, all you renters pondering the biggest purchase of your lives so far probably thought you had it really good.
But now you need to look no further than June's median sales price of $206,200 for new homes to know that the new-homes market is vying for your hard-earned money just as badly. The median price is down not only from $234,000 in June 2008, but also from May's median of $219,000. Compare that with the median price of $181,000 for existing homes in June.
