Homes Sales Up 11%, and Down 21%

Did new-home sales really surge in June? No. But you could get that impression, as articles emphasize that sales were up 11 percent from May, the biggest gain in eight years...

That calculation is based on seasonally adjusted annual rates, which went from a rate of 346,000 in May to 384,000 in June, for the highest rate since November... In actual sales, the preliminary estimate is that 36,000 homes were sold, up 3,000 from May but down 9,000 from last June... To put it another way, this was the second-worst June since they began counting new-home sales in 1963...

NYT Blogs: Homes Sales Up 11%, and Down 21%