Foros de la Plataforma por una Vivienda Digna

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WASHINGTON (Dow Jones) -- U.S. homebuilders slashed prices at the fastest pace in 36 years in September and managed to boost sales to the highest level in three months, the government said Thursday.

The government reported that sales of new homes unexpectedly rose 5.3% in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.075 million, the most in three months and well above the 1.05 million expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch.

However, sales in June, July and August were revised down by total of 67,000 annualized, continuing a pattern of downward revisions to the originally reported data.

August's sales pace was revised to 1.021 million annualized from 1.050 million initially reported, a 3.8% rise from July's downwardly revised 984,000 annual pace.

New-home sales are down 14.2% in the past year and are down 16.5% year-to- date.

Inventories of unsold homes fell 1.9% to 557,000, representing a 6.4-month supply at the September sales pace. It's the second consecutive decline in inventories. The supply of inventory peaked at 7.2 months in July.

Inventories of unsold homes are up 14.4% in the past year. The number of unsold completed homes rose to a record 157,000 in September, up 47% in the past year.

Median sales prices dropped 9.7% in the past year to $217,100, the lowest price in two years. It's the largest percentage decline in median prices since December 1970. Median prices for existing single-family homes are down 2.5% in the past year, the largest decline ever recorded.

Home builders have piled on incentives, including vacations and new cars, to sell homes. Such incentives are not subtracted from the sales price reported to the government.

Sales are reported when a contract is signed, not at the closing of the sale. Home builders have reported a large increase in cancellations in recent months.

The government cautions that its housing data are subject to large sampling and other statistical errors. Large revisions are common.

The standard error is so high, in fact, that the government cannot be sure sales increased at all in September. The 5.3% increase is statistically meaningless compared with the 15.6% confidence interval.

It can take up to six months for a trend in sales to emerge. New-home sales have averaged 1.10 million per month over the past six months, roughly unchanged over the past four months. The six-month sales average is now down 15% from December.

Regionally, sales rose 24% in the West and rose 6.9% in the South. Sales fell 35% in the Northeast and dropped 6.3% in the Midwest. Except for the drop in the Northeast, none of the changes are statistically meaningful.

In a separate report, the Commerce Department said orders for durable goods soared 7.8% in September on a near-tripling in aircraft orders.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires
10-26-061029ET




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