National home sales plunge — LV strong

Wednesday, March 26, 2003 | 11:33 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

New-home sales in February plunged to their lowest level in more than two years as bad weather kept house hunters indoors and orders for costly manufactured goods fell by the largest amount in three months.

The pair of reports released by the Commerce Department today underscored the struggles facing the economy as it tries to get back on firmer footing.

New-home sales fell by 8.1 percent in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 854,000.

Dennis Smith, principal of Home Builders Research Inc., said he did not see any decline in Las Vegas new-home sales in February.

Smith said he is still finalizing his numbers, but he expects recorded new-home sales in Las Vegas to be about 1,700 escrow closings.

"It will still be one of the strongest first two months we've had," he said.

Smith said traffic through new home subdivisions remains high, with a slight decline when the war with Iraq began last week. He said there have been 2.4 net sales per subdivision per week out of a sampling of 200 subdivisions.

There were 1,548 recorded new-home sales in Las Vegas in January, Smith said. He projects about 23,000 new home sales in Las Vegas this year.