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Covid Impacts New Home Sales, Largest Decline in 7 Years
Thursday, April 23, 2020
The Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban
Development's report on new home sales in March is the first real time
indication of the impact the COVID-19 mitigation is having on total sales. The
report on existing homes, released a few days ago, largely reflected the
closing of contracts booked in February and early March. New home sales are
counted at contract signing. That said, the report shows a significant downturn,
with a seasonally adjusted annual sales rate of 627,000 homes. This is a
decline of 15.4 percent from the revised (from 765,000) 741,000 units rate in
February and was down 9.5 percent from a year earlier. The results were consistent with the wide range of
forecasts from analysts polled by Econoday of 570,000 to 700,000 units.
They were, however, well below the consensus estimate of 643,000.
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