Today, the U.S. Census Department released its monthly New Residential Home Sales Report for January showing a notable monthly increase with sales rising 15.6% since December and rising 28.9% above the level seen in January 2012 but remaining at an historically low level of 437K SAAR units.
It's important to recognize that the inventory of new homes appears to now be bouncing around a very low 150K units, near the lowest level seen in in at least 47 years while the median number of months for sale has worsened slightly to 4.7.
The monthly supply dropped to 4.1 months while the median selling price increased 2.12% and the average selling price increased 7.75% from the year ago level.
The following chart show the extent of sales decline to date (click for full-larger version).
