All one can say following the latest New Home Sales data release is that "baffle with BS" mode is fully engaged. First, following the release of the "revised" seasonally adjusted New Home Sales data, we learned that homebuilders somehow sold an extra 88 thousand annualized homes in the months of September, October and November: the same months when the sellside and economist crew was screaming home sales would plunge due to the government shutdown... just so there is a buffer when sales dropped and/or disappointed (because apparently nobody buys houses when the government isn't around). Instead what happened was a massive 18% jump in New Home Sales in the month of October, when the US government was shut down for over half the month, and the final print was 474K sales, the highest since July 2007. So much for that particular red herring.
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But where things get outright bizarre, is when one looks at the series showing the average sales price for New Homes [4]. Keep in mind that an hour ago we showed that mortgage applications have tumbled to a fresh 13 year low [5], while refi apps slid to the lowest in 5 years. So what happened to the average new home sales price in the month of November? Well, it just hit a new all time high! Why, because why it can.
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And... #Ref!