Dive Brief:
- Here's another statistic for the often-confusing state of the home-building industry: New federal data shows an annual rate of 468,000 for new-home sales last month.
- That was up 9.6% from December's rate, being the best number since July 2008.
- The National Association of Home Builders attributed some of the rise to sales put off in December, but Chief Economist Davie Crowe said interest high rates higher that are still historically low are helping sales.
Dive Insight:
The backlog of built homes waiting to be sold stayed at 184,000 – where it was in December – and the higher sales pace made that a 7.4-month inventory. NAHB said the January increase was relatively uniform, with three of the four regions posting higher numbers. The Midwest fell 17.2%, but the Northeast shot up 73.7%.