The Census Bureau reported(.pdf) that new home sales reached a new record low last month, down 11.2 percent from 348,000 units in December to just 309,000 units in January, in what looks to be the beginning of another very difficult year for the homebuilders. Even more astonishing is the fact that the pre-2009 record low of 338,000, seen in September of 1981, works out to be about 406,000 when adjusted for population growth, meaning that the January new home sales level could rise by about 31 percent next month and still only reach the pre-2009 population-adjusted record low.
Tim Iacono submits:
The level of new home sales last month came in below the prior record low of 329,000 reached in January 2009, a full 78 percent below the peak level of sales in 2005.