New-home sales dipped drastically across much of the country in February, except in the West, where sales rebounded from the previous month, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Sales of new single-family homes fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 848,000 in February, down 3.9 percent from 882,000 in January and the slowest annual pace since June 2000.
Economists had forecast an annual sales rate of about 1 million units in February.
New-home sales in the West bucked the downward trend, rising 24.6 percent month-over-month. That followed a 25.8 percent month-over-month drop in January.
The 14-state West region includes Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico.
State-by-state sales numbers were not included in the Commerce Department’s report released Monday.
Matt Osborn, senior vice president of homebuilding with Village Homes in Englewood, estimates sales were up about 7 percent in February versus January.
“Part of the rebound in February was the weather,” Osborn said.
Traffic from prospective homebuyers, which usually starts picking up in the second week of January, was delayed by about two weeks because of a series of snowstorms that started in late December.
Sales declines were most drastic in regions socked by severe weather in February – the Northeast and Midwest, down 26.8 percent and 20 percent month-over-month, respectively.
Builders nationally were sitting on 546,000 unsold homes in February, an 8.1-month supply of inventory at current sales volumes.
Also, January’s new-home- sales annual rate was revised lower – 882,000 versus 937,000.
The median price for a new home slumped 0.3 percent from a year ago to $250,000, the second straight monthly year-over- year decline. It was up from $243,200 in January. The median represents the point at which half the homes sold for more and half for less.
“Sales are continuing to slide, and inventories of unsold new homes remain extremely high, revealing substantial overbuilding and suggesting further weakness in housing starts and construction spending,” said Steven Wood, president of Insight Economics in Danville, Calif.
Wood expects housing to continue to subtract from economic growth in the first half of the year.
U.S. stock indexes initially traded down on the weaker home-sales numbers but recovered to end the day mixed.
Staff writer Aldo Svaldi can be reached at 303-954-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com.
