New home sales up! Yeah... right.... the real truth...

[Aiptasia]

(snip)
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer
11 minutes ago

Sales of new homes rose in May, surprising economists who had been forecasting that housing would slow down because of rising mortgage rates.

The Commerce Department reported that sales of new single-family homes increased by 4.6 percent in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.234 million units. The median price of homes sold did decline to $235,300, a drop of 4.3 percent from the April sales price.

Analysts are still looking for sales of both new and existing homes to fall by around 10 percent this year as rising mortgage rates crimp demand. The lowest mortgage rates in four decades helped to propel sales to five straight annual records.

The 4.6 percent increase in sales pushed the sales rate to the highest level since last December and followed increases of 5.9 percent in April and 7.3 percent in March. The previous months' increases had been helped by unusually mild weather.
(snip)

But, what they fail to report is that new home sales are actually sales of homes which occured (on average) nine months to a year ago. These are brand new homes. When you purchase a new home, you can either buy the lot and have it built, or purchase a spec home that's nearly finished. There's a good bit of time in-between putting down the deposit for a new home and actually closing on it (when it's actually "purchased").

What this means is, that sales for new homes was brisk approximately a year ago. Not today. Sales are going down regionally across the nation with new construction and second home construction taking the biggest hits.

It's just that easy to skew the data and say, "hey, home sales are still great!!" using last year's actual sales figures. The fact is, real estate may or may not be "great" in your area at this time. I hate it when economists twist the data.

The commerce department, covering it's ass.

[displacedtexan]

1. Around the corner from me, a "new" condo bldg is just now...

being built. The units were all sold last Summer (2005),
and the builders just broke ground 4 weeks ago.

This is in DC, at the corner of Pennsylvania SE and 11th St
(Capitol Hill neighborhood).

The units were all sold at top dollar, before the rise in rates
and before houses started to be...

DRASTICALLY REDUCED FOR QUICK SALE!!!!!!!
MUST SEE!!!!! HURRY!!!! BRING ALL OFFERS!!!
HIGHLY MOTIVATED SELLER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited to add: Have you read this blog?
http://housingpanic.blogspot.com/