New home sales in December rose by 17.5% from November, but only to a dismal rate of 329,000. Relative to a year ago, sales are down 7.6%.
While the level was substantially better than the expected rate of 300,000, it is still a very bad level. The eight lowest months on record (back to 1963) for new home sales have all been in the last eight months.
The monthly increase at first glance looks pretty good, but it comes after the November numbers were revised down by 10,000, so even there the increase could be seen as only 13.4%. We are still down from a year ago, and it is not like a year ago was a great time in the homebuilding industry, either.
