July home sales up 22.4 percent in the west
The Commerce Department reported today that new home sales rose nationwide 2.8 percent in July. The big news, however, is what’s happening in the west, with the highest improvement of 22.4 percent.
Nationwide new-home sales fell 4 percent in June. Expectations were for modest improvement in July, but with all the shakeups in the home mortgage industry, making it even more difficult for would-be home buyers to secure mortgages and existing homeowners to refinance, analysts still forecast caution.
For instance, even with July’s increase in home sales, sales are down nationwide by 10 percent from a year ago.
There was some other good news today: big-ticket factory orders jumped 5.9 percent in July. That’s the best improvement in 10 months.
Perhaps those concerned about the U.S. economy can rest a bit easier this weekend with better than expected reports for new home sales and factory orders in July. And if Las Vegas is true to its desert oasis roots, our housing market will be on the rebound sooner than the rest of the country.
This, certainly is a bit of good news for companies in the new homes industry, like Nationwide Homes, which sells new and used manufactured mobile homes in Las Vegas and Pahrump, not to mention other local builders and developers.
