California new home sales down by 46%

Hot off the press:

The monthly report issued by CBIA and Hanley Wood Market Intelligence (my alma mater) for October concludes that we're still off by nearly half from the same period of 2006 (it takes HWMI about a month to compile its data and then up to another couple of weeks to write/edit/approve and post the press release):

The monthly CBIA/Hanley Wood Market Intelligence (HWMI) New Home Sales and Pricing Report showed that new home sales in October were 46 percent below October 2006, similar to the year-over-year decline seen in September. During the month, 3,292 homes and condominiums were sold in the subdivisions tracked by Costa Mesa-based HWMI, compared to 6,047 in October 2006. Sales of single family homes dropped by 37 percent, while sales of townhomes and “plexes” – duplexes, triplexes, etc. – were down 41 percent and sales of condominiums were down 71 percent.

Compared with the same period last year, the median base price of homes sold dropped by 9.7 percent.

Non-seasonally adjusted total new-home sales were 3 percent lower than levels seen in September, although it is not unusual for October to show a slower pace of sales activity than September. Median base sales prices statewide were just under 1 percent higher than in September.

There were, however, a couple of relative bright spots including Fresno (-10.7%), Santa Rosa/Petaluma (-3.4%) and Visalia/Porterville (-14.7%).

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