Sales and a ‘sloppy bottom’

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Statistical press releases are clogging my in-box today so let’s see what the bean counters have to say:

• New-home sales statewide ‘continued to move along at a lackluster pace,’ reports the California Building Industry Assn. (Love that understated prose.) Their monthly report for August, jointly produced with Costa Mesa-based Hanley Wood Market Intelligence, showed a 39% sales drop from August 2007, but at least it wasn’t the 57% drop seen in the July-over-July figures.
• REAL Trends tracked September residential closings in the West as up more than 27% from September 2007. They had been down about 6% in August 2008 from the same month a year ago. Nationally, sales rose 1.9% in September from a year ago, which they sum up as ‘more evidence of a ‘sloppy bottom,’ a term coined by Realogy CEO Richard Smith.’

-- Lauren Beale

Thoughts? Comments?