New home sales slowed in December, reducing the annualized rate to 307,000 units after November had got up to 314,000, the Census Bureau reports.
The year-end report also had poor news for the year, with sales finishing at an estimated 302,000 homes. That's well below 2010's 323,000.
The Wall Street Journal suggested that the fall-off put "the brakes on three months of increases, indicating that the hard-hit sector might not have hit bottom after all."
Recent commentaries from industry economists have suggested that the market might finally be ready to start to rise, with some saying it would be flat for 2012 and values would begin to grow next year.
The data about new homes came on the heels of better information about existing-home sales, for which the inventory is shrinking as buyers take advantage of low mortgage rates.
Commercial Property Executive saw a link between the divergent existing-home and new-home data.
"Mortgage interest rates might be at their lowest level since the invention of Arabic numerals, but it’s still pretty hard to get a mortgage. And besides, why buy new when plenty of not-too-old foreclosed properties are on the market at a smart discount?" CPE said.
