New Home Sales, not

Nhs_seasonals_1

I stole this chart and comment from JD Hamilton’s post on the new home sales data – it’s that good!

" Another way to summarize the deviation from the usual seasonal pattern
is with a graph like the following. In an average year prior to this
one, June sales would be 36% above the December trough, whereas this
year they are up only 17% since December.

Only 4 years out of the last
41 years (which includes 6 recessions) saw as weak a December-to-June
gain." [my italics]

 

I’ve got nothing to add; a picture is worth a thousand words…