New home sales plunge to lowest level in 16 years

Below is a link to an AP story pointing out that nationally new home sales in March 2008 plunged to a 16 and a half year low.

So why did I start this out as a possible "mixed bag". Well data from March for Sarasota County, Manatee and Charlotte shows that sales of EXISTING homes are actually up a bit, though prices are down.  The mixed bag is that for all the bad things that come home to roost in our economy, especially locally as it is so tied to the housing market, there is indication here of SOME movement to use up some of the backlog of existing inventory of resale homes  - perhaps at the expense of sales of new product. But for prices to stabilize we really do need to burn through some inventory before we "make some more" with new construction. If you need to sell or are currently trying to sell your home - seeing some inventory drain off would be a good thing.

In the long run though our own local economic engine will continue to sputter if the trend for new home sales continues on this path.

Here's a link to the article:

http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/n4-042408.cfm

- Mike W.