New home sales plunge

[Lake Hills Renter]

"Sales of new homes plunged in March to the lowest level in 16 1/2 years as housing slumped further at the start of the spring sales season. The median price of a new home in March, compared with a year ago, fell by the largest amount in nearly four decades."

New home sales plunge to lowest level in 16 1/2 years

[morty209]

i hate to say it but this is probably good news. i think we'll see the trough in home valuations in Seattle this summer. At least that's when I will begin making the rounds again looking for value. All depends on the mortgage markets...

[SeattleMoose]

"i hate to say it but this is probably good news. i think we'll see the trough in home valuations in Seattle this summer."

Well I'll up the ante.....I hate to say it...but the earth is flat.

I can understand why you hated to say what you did. Didn't you see the poll a few weeks back about "which inning" we are in? Tim's readers established we are only in the 2nd or 3rd inning. The "trough" is several years off. This spring will be a bust. Next spring....worse.

Having been thru 2 previous economic/RE busts all I can say is that this time is by far the biggest runup in prices I have ever seen. And the previous "smaller" busts usually took about 5 to 7 years from peak to trough.

Couple this with the "perfect storm" of the foreclosure wave, financial industry implosion, job layoffs, rampant inflation in food/gas/etc., and we are in uncharted territory.

Buy hey don't worry, those rebate checks will turn things around!!

old chinese saying...."the bigger the front, the bigger the back".

[rose-colored-coolaid]

[ira s]

I'm thinking a bottom in late '09, but we are likely to wallow at the bottom for a few years.

[rose-colored-coolaid]

[Alan]

I hate to say it but I like to hear that too.