New US homes sales are showing signs that the housing decline may end soon after a 74 percent decline from the July 2005 peak. The pace of home sales, which hit record low in January and jumped in February, were almost flat in March the Commerce Department according to a report released Friday.
New home sales fell 0.6 percent in March last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 356,000 from a rate of 358,000 according to the Commerce Department report. This is still 30.6 percent below the March 2008 figure of 513,000.
Another sign that the housing woes is bottoming out is the estimated number of new homes for sale at the end of last month was a seasonally adjusted 311,000 where it stood at 328,000 the prior month, according to the Commerce Department.
At the current sales pace, this represents a supply of 10.7 months. That's down from the previous month, when the estimated months of inventory was 11.2, and was almost 2 months below January's level of 12.5. The number of new homes for sale continues to decline and has not recorded any monthly increase since May 2007.
The median sales price of new houses sold in March 2009 was $201,400 down 3.5 percent from the revised $208,700 in February. The average sales price was $258,000. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of March was 311,000.
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