New home sales remain in a funk

Well, the homebuilders certainly aren't being shown any of that same love that real estate agents have seen in recent months as they've ferried prospective buyers around to look at and bid on existing homes where sales have been soaring. A short time ago, the Census Bureau reported(.pdf) that new home sales remain in a severe funk as shown below. After downward revisions to prior data, an early-2009 type of result for new home sales was seen in November, down sharply to an annual rate of 355,000, the fifth worst showing since record-keeping began in the 1960s with all four lesser totals occurring earlier in the year.

Note that, in population adjusted terms, the homebuilders have spent the entire year of 2009 posting sales numbers that are below the previous all-time record low set in 1991, just one more indication of how severe the housing boom and bust have been.