Housing Bubble

New home sales fall 15 percent

February 27, 2003

Sales of new one-family houses in January 2003 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 914,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 15.1 percent below the revised December rate of 1,077,000, but is 5.1 percent above the January 2002 estimate of 870,000.

This is a much greater fall than had been expected, with three of the four geographic regions showing a decline.

The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of January was 346,000. This represents a supply of 4.5 months at the current sales rate compared with3.8 months in December.

The median sales price of new houses sold in January 2003 was $182,300 while the average sales price was $228,600. This is a fall since December when the median sales price was $186,400 and the average sales price was $238,500.

Source: www.census.gov