Those banking on a recovery in housing may be having second thoughts this morning as New Home Sales for the month of January declined 11.2% to 309K. This was not only weaker than expected (consensus called for an increase of 3.8%), but it was a record low.
The declines were sharpest in the Northeast where sales declined 35%, and some say the cold weather in January helped to contribute to the declines. The northeast region was the smallest of the four national regions with only 24K in sales, and based on data from NOAA, January was actually warmer than average in that region. (It did snow quite a bit though.) While the south saw cooler than average temperatures, which may have contributed to the declines in that region, temperatures were warmer than average out west and sales still declined by nearly 12%.
