New home sales plunge ... again

The Census Bureau reported yet another plunge in new home sales during November, a nine percent drop from October, to fresh 12-year lows at 647,000 units.
Data for the last three months was revised sharply lower and the current level of sales is down 34.4 percent from one year ago.

Despite huge discounts and incentives, inventories of unsold homes rose from 8.8 months to 9.3 months, just below the recent high mark set three months ago. Subsequent revisions to the data will likely see the November inventory number revised upward.

Even with the large number of unsold home, prices were stable, rising 4.2 percent from last month to a median price of $239,000, down only 0.5 percent from last year at this time. These prices, however, do not include incentives which often total tens of thousands of dollars or more.