New home sales at record lows

The Commerce Department reported that new home sales in the U.S. fell 10.2 percent in January to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of just 309,000, a new all-time low going back 46 years ...

Not surprisingly, inventory continues to rise, and the "months of supply" metric rose from 12.2 months in December to 13.3 months in the latest report.

The median sales price plunged a record 9.9 percent to $201,100 from $223,200 the month before. The median price for a new home is now down 13.4 percent from a year ago though the magnitude of the decline continues to be masked by builder incentives for homes that do sell.