The Commerce Department announced today a 21.6 percent decrease in new home sales in the past year. That’s just the latest in a string of recently released statistics revealing year-on-year drops in the housing market.
Existing homes aren’t doing much better. Those sales are down 11.4 percent from last year, according to a report released by the National Association of Realtors yesterday. That report also revealed that the inventory of unsold homes reached the highest point in 13 years.
Mortgage refinancings reached a five-month high, according to data released by the Mortgage Bankers Association yesterday. But overall, mortgage applications decreased 25.1 percent over the last year.
I posted these data last week about decreases in housing starts and building permits in July. Those stats, released by the Commerce Department, showed a 13.3 year-on-year drop in new-home construction starts in July, and a 20.8 percent year-on-year drop in total building permits issued in July.
Just a round-up of cheery data for you this evening.