New home sales as reported by the Census Bureau were 356,000 units for March versus 358,000 units in February. Months of supply was 10.7. 

I highly recommend that you take a look at a post on Calculated Risk regarding these numbers. He has his usual in-depth analysis and then presents his conclusion as to the metrics you need to watch in order to figure out the trend in home sales.

So I believe those analysts looking at the existing home sales report for stability are looking in the wrong place. The first “signs of stability” in the housing market will be declining inventory (see 3rd graph here), a bottom in new home sales (see previous post), and the gap between new and existing home sales closing.

You will need to visit his post to take a look at the charts and understand the logic that led to his conclusion. It’s well worth a couple of minutes.

While we’re on the subject of real estate, I found a couple of other interesting posts at CNBC.com. Diana Orlick talks about home price measurements and tries to rationalize the variances. I posted on this yesterday and she has some other thoughts. 

Meanwhile Jane Wells talks about Korea Air Lines plans to spend about $1 billion on a major expansion of the Wilshire Grand Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. It has some interesting information on Korean Air and its chairman’s rationale for going into the market at this point in time.

It’s amusing how often past patterns seem to repeat. Over the years it’s been the Europeans and then the Japanese and now the Chinese and other Asian tigers that are going to topple the U.S. and lead the world into a new economy. America will be lucky to follow along and pick up the crumbs they drop.

Each episode has also been accompanied by a rush to buy American real estate with the new found wealth. Seems like this time the Asians are leading that charge. Does it tell you something about their long-term view of the world’s economies?