New home inventories remain low
Posted By:
Tom Sanderson
Date Posted:
Thursday, August 25, 2011
2:54 PM
Seasonally adjusted new home inventory held at 6.6 months of supply in July. The average months of supply over the last 48 years is 6.2 so even by this measure the housing picture is improving. The absolute inventory of new homes continues to fall and is now at 165 thousand; lower than inventory levels in the 1960's. Any recovery in the rate of sales would quickly deplete the low absolute inventory level and lead to a significant increase in housing starts (and freight) but that does not appear likely in the near term. The vertical bars in the graphs represent recessions.
