New home sales activity slowed at the end of 2012 with new homes selling in December at a seasonally adjusted rate of 369,000, a decline of 7.3 percent from the month before but an increase of 8.8 percent from December 2011, according to the December 2012 new home sales report from the Commerce Department. This means 2012 ended with an increase of almost 20 percent in new home sales from 2011 when there were just 306,000 new homes sold. Also on a positive note, the median price of new homes increased from $218,600 in December 2011 to $248,900 in December 2012 while, during the same period, the inventory of new homes for sale in the U.S. declined from a 5.4 month supply to 4.9 months.
My Mantra
You’ve heard me say it, over and over….I don’t like “seasonally adjusted” numbers and “rate” of sales, so here you : Here is the raw data, the ACTUAL new homes sold- no fluff, no “adjusting” for December 2012:
- 26,000 new homes sold, down from 29,000 in November up from 24,000 a year ago.
- As usual, the South had the majority of the new home sales, with 61.5 percent of total sales with 15,000 for the month
- The west region dropped from 6,000 new home sales in November to 5,000 sales for December.
- The Midwest saw new home sales increase from 3,000 in November to 4,000 new homes sold in December.
- The Northeast had 2,000 new homes sold, same as the month before
- New Homes in the US in sold during the month been for sale for a median time of 4.6 months since the homes were completed, down from 5.4 months the month before.
Wrap up for 2012-
The preliminary numbers are in for 2012, showing there were a total of 367,000 new homes sold in 2012 an increase of almost 20 percent from 2011 when there were 306,000 new homes sold, blowing away my forecast of 304,000 – 334,000 new homes. I couldn’t be happier that I was wrong and hope that we will see an even larger increase in new home sales in 2013.
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