Following three consecutive months of gains, sales of newly built, single-family homes fell 2.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 307,000 units in December, according to figures from the U.S. Commerce Department.

NAHB is forecasting that new-home sales will rise 18 percent in 2012 following a 7.3 percent dip to the lowest number in the history of the government’s recordkeeping (302,000 units) in 2011.

December’s decline in new-home sales was mostly due to a 10.1 percent dip in the South, which is the nation’s largest housing market. The Midwest posted a more modest decline of 3.7 percent, while the Northeast and West posted substantial gains of 46.7 percent and 9 percent, respectively.

The inventory of new homes for sale continued to slide to a new record low of 157,000 units in December, which is a 6.1-month supply at the current sales pace.

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California saw the third-lowest yearly housing permit total and the worst yearly total on record for single-family units in 2011, according to the California Building Industry Association (CBIA). 

CBIA said a total of 47,015 permits were issued statewide last year for new homes, apartments, condominiums, and townhomes, up 5 percent from 2010 when 44,762 permits had been issued. The 2011 total still was down 28 percent from 2008, which had held the distinction of the third-lowest total on record with 64,962 permits issued. Records began being kept in 1954 with the lowest yearly total set in 2009 with 36,421 permits issued.

According to statistics compiled by the Construction Industry Research Board (CIRB), homebuilders pulled permits for a record-low 21,420 single-family homes in 2011, down 16 percent from 2010. Multifamily permits totaled 25,595, up 33 percent from the previous year.

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CNN Money – The Census Bureau reported that housing starts fell to 657,000 on an annual basis, down 4.1 percent compared with November.

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Wall Street Journal – Amid a flurry of housing news this week, including President Obama’s latest mortgage-refinance proposal, comes an interesting piece of real-estate analysis in the building sector.  Metrostudy has analyzed the strongest markets for home builders, which include: San Diego; Southern California; Texas’ Rio Grande Valley; St. George, Utah; and Orlando.

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The U.S. Census Bureau of the Dept. of Commerce announced yesterday that construction spending during November 2011 increased 1.2 percent to an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of $807.1 billion compared with October.  The November figure is 0.5 percent above the November 2010 estimate of $803 billion.

During the first 11 months of this year, construction spending amounted to $724.8 billion, 2.5 percent below the $743.6 billion for the same period in 2010.

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Sales of new single-family houses rose 1.6 percent in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 315,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development.

The median sales price of new houses sold in November was $214,100; the average sales price was $242,900. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of November was 158,000. This represents a supply of 6 months at the current sales rate.

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Building permits for single-family homes rose 1.6 percent in November to a rate of 435,000 compared with October’s rate of 428,000, according to a joint release by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development.

Single-family housing starts increased 2.3 percent in November to a rate of 447,000 compared with the October figure of 437,000.

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CNN Money - Housing starts shot up to an annual rate of 685,000 in November, up 9.3 percent from October and 24.3 percent higher than a year earlier.

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Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes edged up two points to 21 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) for December. This marks a third consecutive month in which builder confidence has improved, and brings the index to its highest point since May 2010.

“This is the first time that builder confidence has improved for three consecutive months since mid-2009, which signifies a legitimate though slowly emerging upward trend,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “While large inventories of foreclosed properties continue to plague the most distressed markets and consumer worries about job security and the challenges of selling an existing home remain significant factors, builders are reporting more inquiries and more interest among potential buyers than they have seen in previous months.”

Each of the HMI’s three component indexes registered a third consecutive month of improvement in December. The component gauging current sales conditions rose two points to 22, while the component gauging sales expectations in the next six months edged up one point to 26. The component gauging traffic of prospective buyers gained three points to 18, which is its highest level since May 2008.

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One out of three builders reported losing signed sales contracts during the preceding six months because appraisals on their homes were less than the contract sales price, according to a survey by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). 

Builders claim that due to faulty appraisal practices, brand new homes with upgrades get compared to distressed properties that have been sitting vacant and in disrepair. The result, in many cases, has been that the new house gets appraised at less than the cost of construction.

According to the NAHB survey, 60 percent of respondents reported they were experiencing appraisals coming in below their contract sales price.  Of those reporting that they had encountered this problem, 53 percent said the appraisal amount was actually less than the cost of building the home.

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