Martin Crutsinger
USA Today
WASHINGTON — The government reported more bad news for the beleaguered housing industry Wedmesday. The Commerce Department said sales of new homes fell in January for a third straight month, pushing activity down to the slowest pace in nearly 13 years.
In addition, the median price of a new home — that is, half sold for more, half for less — dropped to the lowest level in more than three years.
Commerce said new-home sales fell 2.8% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 588,000 units, slowest pace since February 1991.
The median price of a new home dropped to $216,000 in January, down more than 4% from December’s median sale price and down 15% from $254,400 a year ago.
At the end of January there were an estimated 482,000 new homes for sale. That is 9.9 months’ supply at the current sales rate.
The West was the only region to see an uptick in the sales pace, with a 2.2% rise, while sales slid 10.3% in the Northeast, 7.6% in the Midwest and 2.4% in the South, the report says.