Real estate economic update for March 2010

National new home sales and existing home sales:

New home sales came out lower than projected for January.  Inventories rose to 9.1 months, not altogether surprising for January but median prices were down 5.6%, year over year.  Overall new home sales were down 22.9% for 2009.

Existing home sales fell 7.2% in January, following the 16.2% drop in December.

Personal income and outlays showed strong in January, up .4%, and personal spending was up .5%.  It’s a mixed bag in that non-durable goods rose by 1.8% (mainly gasoline prices), so the end result is that spending on durable goods was up .1%.  Overall people are still struggling with unemployment, which was marginally better, but not good enough to really provide support.

Pending home sales continued to fall, down 7.6% to 90.4%.   A variety of factors, including the recent bad weather are cited in the report.

I’ll post local numbers in the next few days, meanwhile look out for:

• International trade numbers (International trade is composed of merchandise (tangible goods) and services.  Data are also available for 36 countries and geographic regions. Detailed information is reported on oil and motor vehicle imports. ) out next Thursday.
• Retail sales coming out next Friday.