(Bloomberg)
The number of new houses for sale in the U.S. dropped by the most in four decades in June, indicating that cutbacks in construction are starting to make a dent in the property glut. There were 426,000 homes for sale at an annualized pace at the end of June, the fewest since 2004 and down from 543,000 a year ago, the Commerce Department said today in its new-home sales report. The 5.3 percent drop is the biggest since November 1963 and marks the 14th straight monthly decline. Lower home prices are enticing potential homebuyers into the market, a necessary step for emerging from the worst housing slump in a quarter century. The supply of homes at the current sales rate fell to 10 months’ worth in June from 10.4 months the prior month, the Commerce report showed. “It is likely that inventory levels will continue to fall because new construction activity is low relative to the level of household formation,” Tony Crescenzi, chief bond strategist at Miller Tabak & Co. in New York, wrote today in a note to clients. More
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