Friday, March 27, 2009

Barry Ritholz explains new home sales

From The Big Picture New Home Sales Fell 41% in February 2009

…A parade of the mathematically innumerate business writers (and even worse headline writers!) continue to misread data. The latest evidence? New Home Sales.

After incorrectly reporting the Existing Home Sales, the mainstream media misread the Census department report of New Homes.

No, New Home Sales data did not improve. In fact, they were not only not positive, they were actually horrific. The year over year number was a terrible down 41%.  Sales from this same period a year ago have nearly been halved.