Dennis Norman
This morning the U.S. Department of Commerce released a report showing the sale of New Homes here in the Midwest region in July were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 61,000 units, a 7.6 percent decrease from Junes annual rate of 66,000 units. The U.S. as a whole saw a 9.6 percent increase in new home sales in July over the month before with the Midwest beign the only region not to show an increase for the month.
New home sales in the Midwest for July 2009 lag 4.7 percent behind July 2008 new home sales which is better than the 13.4 percent decline from a year ago for new home sales in the US as a whole.
The report does not break down new home median sale price data by region, but for the US the median price of new homes sold in July was $210,100; June was adjusted to $210,400. The average time on market for new homes sold in the US in July was 12.4 months up from 11.8 months in June. For 2007 the average time on market for new homes sold was 50 percent less at 6.2 months.
The Midwest had at the end of July an estimated 45,000 new homes for sale which works out to an 8.8 month supply of new homes at the current rate. July’s inventory of new homes in the Midwest shows a modest increase from the 8.5 month supply for June and is 17 percent higher than the 7.5 month supply of new homes for sale in the US.
The inventory of new homes, as well as existing homes, needs to continue to decline in order to help restore the real estate market back to a healthy balance of suply and demand. Or, if I look at it with the “glass is half full” approach, sales need to increase to bring the supply down.
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