New Homes: Good Time to Buy, Save $40k vs Feb

The median price for new homes sold in September ($217,100) was 9.7% below last September's median price of $240,400, which is the largest percentage year-over-year drop in median home prices since December 1970! The median price home in September 2006 fell to about the same as the median price two years ago in August 2004 ($218,100). The median price for new homes peaked in February 2006 at $250,800, and new home prices have fallen by almost $40,000 in the last seven months!

Unit sales have fallen by more than 14% over the last year, and the "months supply"of new homes has increased (months supply is the ratio of new houses for sale to new houses sold).

The information above is from the monthly report on new home sales from the Census Bureau. Monthly reports on existing-home sales come from the National Association of Realtors. According to the Realtors report earlier this week, the median price for an existing home was $220,000 in September, 2.2 percent below last September's median price of $225,000.

Therefore, you can now buy the median priced new home for $217,100, which is almost $5,000 cheaper than buying the median priced existing home!