New Homes No Longer an Attractive Proposition?

If you thought the existing-home sales figures for July were depressing, better pop a Zoloft or two before glancing at the new-homes sales numbers for the same month. Sales of new homes fell to a 37-year low in July, a 12.4 percent drop from June. The Commerce Department reported that a seasonally adjusted 276,000 new homes were sold during the month, the lowest level since the department started keeping records in 1963. After all, why buy a new home when there are plenty of nearly new homes on the market at steep discounts? Well, for one, they're getting cheaper by the month. The median price for a new home was $204,000, a 4.2 percent fall from June.