Summary for Week of May 25th

Housing remains weak, but improving. The Census Bureau reported that new home sales increased again in April, and that there were 117,000 new homes sold during the first four months of 2012. This compares to only 101,000 sold for the comparable period last year. This level of sales is historically very weak - and 2012 will probably be the 3rd worst year on record after 2011 and 2010 - but the increase in sales is important for both jobs and economic growth.

For existing home sales, the key number is inventory. The NAR reported that inventory increased seasonally in April, but that inventory is down 20.6% from last April. Less listed inventory means less downward pressure on prices, and some preliminary data suggests house prices may have stabilized. We will have more data on house prices next week.

Also consumer sentiment improved in May, probably because of the recent decline in gasoline prices.

There were some negatives too: Europe is a mess, durable goods orders were soft, the Richmond Fed manufacturing survey showed slower expansion, and the trucking index declined. But this was a week for housing data, and housing is slowly recovering. Here are some comments from home builder Toll Brothers CEO Doug Yearly, Jr this week:

"It appears that the housing market has moved into a new and stronger phase of recovery as we have experienced broad-based improvement across most of our regions over the past six months. The spring selling season has been the most robust and sustained since the downturn began. Even now, for the first three weeks of May, our non-binding reservation deposits, a leading indicator of future contracts, are running 39% ahead on a gross basis, and 23% ahead on a per-community basis, compared to last year's same May period."

I always take home builder comments with a grain of salt, but that is a pretty strong statement.

Here is a summary in graphs:

' New Home Sales increase in April to 343,000 Annual Rate

Click on graph for larger image in graph gallery.

The first graph shows New Home Sales vs. recessions since 1963. The dashed line is the current sales rate.

The Census Bureau reported New Home Sales in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 343 thousand.

This was up from a revised 332 thousand SAAR in March (revised up from 328 thousand).

The second graph shows New Home Months of Supply.

Months of supply decreased to 5.1 in April from 5.2 in March.

The all time record was 12.1 months of supply in January 2009.

This is now in the normal range (less than 6 months supply is normal).

Starting in 1973 the Census Bureau broke inventory down into three categories: Not Started, Under Construction, and Completed.

The inventory of completed homes for sale was at a record low 46,000 units in April. The combined total of completed and under construction is at the lowest level since this series started.

Even though sales are still very low, new home sales have clearly bottomed. New home sales have averaged 340 thousand SAAR over the last 5 months, after averaging under 300 thousand for the previous 18 months. All of the recent revisions have been up too.