In January, new US single family home sales took a tumble from their 10 month high. This was particularly due to a dip in the West, although overall housing market recovery remains strong. The Commerce Department has reported that single-family home sales dropped 9.2% last month. In the West, where there has been a sharp rise in home prices, sales went down 32.1% to the lowest level since July of 2014. This was the largest decline they’ve seen since May of 2010.
In the Northeast, the sales rose 3.4% and sales were up 1.8% in the South. However, sales decreased 5.9% in the Midwest. While the plunge was dramatic, economists did not seem too worried about it.
As Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan in New York said, “Through some of the noise in the data, it appears that home sales are continuing to trend higher over time off of historically low levels. We maintain our view that the housing market will continue to recover.”