Surging Sales in West; Lowest Rates in a Year; Housing Can Weather a Storm

It seems like only yesterday that we were looking at the December new home sale numbers - well actually it was 6 days ago. Now we have the January sales numbers as the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development continue to catch up from the shutdown's data drought. However, while December sales surprised everyone with a 16.9 percent increase to 621,000 units (now revised to 652,000) January took back a lot of those gains. Sales were at a seasonally adjusted rate of 607,000 units, a 6.9 percent reversal. This puts sales down 4.1 percent year-over-year. That the January numbers were not worse was solely due to a surge in sales in the West. They fell by double digit percentages in the other three regions. The January estimate was still solidly within the 590,000 to 640,000

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http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/reports/newsletter/2019/3/14/3828