Signs the Recession Is Still With Us

Three recent reports indicate that the housing market is still in serious trouble. On April 24, the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development reported that new home sales in March declined 0.6% from February 2009, and was off 30.6% from sales of new one-family houses in March 2008. The report estimated there was a 10.7-month supply of new homes for sale.

On April 23, the National Association of Realtors reported a 3% decline in March in existing single-family home sales from February. At a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.57 million units, existing home sales were down 7.1% from March 2008. NAR did estimate that inventories of existing homes declined 1.7%, but that inventory rose slightly to 9.8 months. With the oversupply, home prices fell again in March, NAR said, with the national median price in March of $175,200 representing a 12.4% decline from March 2008.