New U.S. single-family home sales surged to a more than eight-year high in April and prices hit a record high.
The Commerce Department said on Tuesday new home sales jumped 16.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of619,000 units, the highest level since January 2008. The percent increase was the largest since January 1992.
The median price for a new home increased 9.7 percent from a year ago to a record $321,100.
Note to Austrian-lites: This is not what a downturn in the economy looks like.
-RW
Correct. In the real economy, it looks like Sports Authority liquidating, closing all 450 stores, and putting close to 15,000 people out of work.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that new Fannie Mae 3 percent down payment and other relaxations in lending requirements have something to do with this "boom."
ReplyDeleteAnd lots and lots of Chinese capital flight cash buyers!
DeleteGovernment interferences make building for the lower priced end of the market unprofitable. The result is builders go where there still is profit, more expensive homes.
ReplyDeleteIn my area they simply don't build new single family homes for under a half million dollars (and even those are few and far between with most being 750K or so). That sure does make the average price high but it says nothing for the real underlying economy.
www.cnbc.com/2016/05/18/for-homebuilders-new-regulations-mean-no-new-starter-homes.html