June 2012 new home sales plunge 8.4%, biggest miss in expectations since Oct. 2010

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7/25/12, "New Home Sales Miss By Most In 20 Months," Zero Hedge

"But, but, but... the housing recovery. Was demand pulled forward? Could it be that warm weather encouraged people to venture out of their igloos? It appears so as new home sales plunge 8.4% MoM on expectations of a rise of 0.7%, days after the already fudged NAR data showed a huge miss in existing home sales as well. This is the first miss since October of last year and the biggest miss of expectations since October 2010. This is the biggest absolute drop since January with the actual number of new homes sold, not annualized, in June was 33,000 - of which a mere 1,000 was in the NorthEast. Median home prices also fell appreciably. ...Of the 33,000 total new houses sold in June, 11,000 have not even been started, and 11,000 are still under construction and the number of homes sold at a price over $750,000 was less than 1,000. Median home prices down 3.2% and are now the lowest since January."...

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7/25/12, "Home Sales Disappoint...Twice," CNBC, Diana Olick

"Sales of newly built homes fell hard in June, despite newfound optimism in the housing recovery, especially among the home builders themselves....

Sales levels are now at their lowest since January.

This is the second miss for housing in the same month. Sales of existing homes fell as well, despite expectations for a gain.

The biggest drop in new home sales came in the Northeast, down 60 percent month-to-month, but the Northeast represents the smallest sample and is therefore highly volatile....

"With new home sales at current levels 75 percent below peak and with a run rate near 50+ year lows, new home construction has bottomed, but there is still a long bridge between a bottom and a robust recovery, as existing home inventories (shadow and otherwise) remain elevated," writes Peter Boockvar, an analyst at Miller Tabak.

These latest numbers fly in the face of rising home builder optimism and a huge run on the stocks of the public builders. Some analysts, however, have been warning that this recovery is fragile at best, given other factors in the economy, specifically lackluster job growth and poor consumer sentiment."...

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