As If It Wasn't Already Confusing Enough...

New home sales increased nationwide in August. However, prices are lower than they were a year ago.

CNN is the first online with coverage on the new numbers.

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LA's 10 Richest Residents

Forbes has released its list of The 400 Richest Americans. The top 10 in Los Angeles are:

1. Kirk Kerkorian
Overall Rank: 26, $9.0 billion, 89 years old, investments, casinos

2. Eli Broad
Overall Rank: 42, $5.8 billion, 73 years old, investments

3. David Howard Murdock
Overall Rank: 59, $4.2 billion, 83 years old, investments

4. Patrick Soon-Shiong
Overall Rank: 77, $3.4 billion, 54 years old, generic drugs

5. Ronald Burkle
Overall Rank: 117, $2.5 billion, 53 years old, supermarkets, investments

6. Alfred Mann
Overall Rank: 140, $2.2 billion, 80 years old, inventor, entrepreneur

7. Michael Robert Milken
Overall Rank: 153, $2.1 billion, 60 years old, investments

8. David Whitmire Hearst Jr
Overall Rank: 160, $2.0 billion, 61 years old, Hearst Corp

9. George Randolph Hearst Jr
Overall Rank: 160, $2.0 billion, 79 years old, Hearst Corp

10. Anthony Pritzker
Overall Rank: 160, $2.0 billion, 45 years old, hotels, investments

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National Median Price Falls For 1st Time in 11 yrs

The national median price on previously owned homes fell in August, the first time it's done so in 11 years.

From The New York Times:

The National Association of Realtors reported today that existing home sales dropped 0.5 percent from July to August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.3 million units. That compares with a decline from June to July of 4.1 percent.

From the Los Angeles Times:

On a regional basis, the West was the only part of the nation in August to report an increase in the median sales price, a meager 0.3% rise to $345,000. Sales, meanwhile, fell 2.3%.

From the California Association of Realtors:

Home sales decreased 30.1 percent in August in California compared with the same period a year ago, while the median price of an existing home increased 1.6 percent, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.) reported today.

“We experienced the greatest year-to-year sales decline last month since August 1982, when sales fell 30.4 percent,” said C.A.R. President Vince Malta. “This is another indication that we’re in the initial stages of a long-anticipated adjustment in the market.

“Buyers today have a much greater selection of properties from which to choose, while some sellers are still clinging to price expectations that are no longer valid in today’s market,” he said.

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My $36.50 Parking Education

I've been doing a lot of research this month at the Central Library downtown, and thought I'd figured out the parking situation.

And then came the $36.50 bill.

I'd spent more than four and a half hours in the stacks, and so, of course, I should have been punished. But $36.50?

This might be a hint as to why it seems few people use the library downtown.

— TJ Sullivan in LA

Builder Confidence Lowest Since Feb. 1991

The latest National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index says builder confidence is at its lowest level in 15 years.

NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders offered the following analysis in a press release:

“Builders are adopting an increasingly cautious attitude in their near-term outlook for new-home sales,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders. “They’re experiencing falling sales, rising sales cancellations, and increasing inventories of unsold units. And although many builders are offering substantial incentives to bolster sales and limit cancellations, many potential buyers now are waiting on the sidelines to see how the market shakes out before proceeding with a home purchase.

“We are in the midst of an anticipated adjustment period as the housing market subsides from the record-breaking and unsustainable highs of the past few years,” Seiders noted. “Our forecast projects the numbers flattening out around the middle of next year and gradually moving back up towards trend in 2008.

“That said, long-term housing fundamentals will be very favorable,” he added. “In fact, the housing market that emerges from this correction will have better balance between supply and demand and will be able to ride on excellent underlying fundamentals for years to come.”

The HMI follows an adjustment issued earlier this month by the National Association of Realtors, which said home sales will fall about 8 percent in 2006.

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Housing Starts Report Due Tuesday Morning

Housing starts likely fell in August, says Bloomberg.com:

The Commerce Department is scheduled to release the housing starts report at 8:30 a.m. in Washington. The Labor Department will put out the producer prices report at the same time.

Estimates for housing starts ranged from 1.62 million to 1.85 million at an annual rate. Total PPI forecasts were from a drop of 0.1 percent to an increase of 0.9 percent.

* UPDATE: Housing starts drop, inflation tame, says Bloomberg.com

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