Dive Brief:
- Federal government figures released Monday clocked new home sales last month at an annualized rate of 412,000, which was a step back from a revised June pace of 422,000.
- The drop came from declining sales in the Northeast (-30.8%), West (-15.2%) and Midwest (-8.8%), which overcame a gain in the South of 8.1%.
- The change perplexed officials at the National Association of Home Builders, which has found increasing optimism among builders— along with the lowest mortgage rates this year, reports of increasing consumer confidence, and jobs being added to the economy.
Dive Insight:
The July numbers give evidence of how difficult it is to gauge the recovery by traditional means, as existing home sales were up last month. Perhaps the fact that the new jobs added are often not paying what new jobs did before the recession explains consumer trepidation.