The new home sales numbers are out. "Sales of new homes are down 17.4% in the past year and are down 23% from the peak last July, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. Sales in May, June and July were revised sharply lower. The median sales price of a new home fell 1.3% year-on-year to $237,000, the first year-on-year decline since 2003."

"The reported sales price does not account for the massive incentives builders have been offering to close deals."

"Inventories are up 19% year-on-year. The inventory overhang will put additional pressure on builders to cut prices, said Roger Kubarych, an economist for HVB.'The housing downturn is not about to end quickly and, by the time it does, public awareness of the associated loss of wealth will be far higher than now,' said HVB's Kubarych."

"'Builders are extremely pessimistic,' eceonomists Brian Bethune and Nigel Gault said ahead of the report. The number of unsold completed homes rose to a record 148,000 in August."

"TOUSA announced today that it met with the lenders to the Transeastern joint venture to update them on the financial position of the joint venture and the Florida housing market conditions."

"'Our discussions with the lenders focused on the current Florida housing market conditions and the joint venture's inability to meet its original projections, said Antonio Mon, CEO of TOUSA. 'The Florida housing market has become more challenging, characterized by weak demand, an over supply of new and existing inventory homes, increased competition, and an overall lack of buyer urgency. These well-documented conditions have caused elevated cancellation rates and downward pressure on margins, due to increased sales incentives and higher advertising and broker commissions.'"

"Blaming a nationwide housing slowdown, Pentair Inc., the water filtration giant based in Golden Valley, announced a spate of bad news. 'This adjustment reflects the effect of the housing slowdown on spa and bath markets and on new pool starts,' Hogan said. Particularly bad were its key pool markets of Florida and Southern California."

The Miami Herald. "CEO Stuart Miller said Lennar will lower prices and continue building homes it has started. But Lennar is also renegotiating all contracts to buy land or even walking away from deposits, and in some cases, multimillion dollar deposits, on properties it previously planned to develop, he said."

"'We will be patient and wait for the market to redefine itself and then will look for opportunities to reload and reposition,' Miller said. But when asked by an analyst if there are any buying opportunities right now, Miller responded: 'No.'"

"Lennar, which primarily builds single-family homes, has operations across the country but is most concentrated in Florida, Texas and California."

From Bloomberg. "U.S. homebuilders including Pulte Homes Inc., Lennar Corp. and D.R. Horton Inc. are cutting prices and throwing in a lot more than the kitchen sink to stem a record build-up of unsold houses, even as their profits and shares tumble."

"Builders are paying closing costs and a year's worth of monthly mortgage bills to lure buyers, says Joshua Cohen, an agent in Las Vegas. 'We've seen a huge upswing in supply and a huge decrease in demand,' Cohen says. 'The builders will do whatever it takes to move a property.'"

"About 44 percent of U.S. homebuilders have reduced prices, says Gopal Ahluwalia, director of research at the National Association of Home Builders in Washington. The median price of a new home dropped 11 percent to $230,000 in July from a 2006 high of $257,000 in April, according to the Commerce Department."

"More than half of builders, 55 percent, are offering free upgrades, up from 37 percent a year earlier, he says. Four percent are giving away cars and another 4 percent are handing out vacations, Ahluwalia says."

"'Builders have to sell their houses or pay the carrying costs,' he says. 'There's more pressure to cut prices and offer incentives for new houses than in the existing-home market, where most people can wait if they don't like the offers they're getting.'"

"Much of the decline stems from an exodus of investors from the new-home market, says Ahluwalia. Daniel Rosenfield, a real estate investor, agreed last year to pay $204,800 for a house under construction in Kissimmee, Florida, with the expectation that he would sell it quickly in 'the low $300,000s,' he says."

"Rosenfield closed the deal in June, just as the new- home market was cooling, and listed it for sale at $300,000, resigning himself to a more modest profit. Today, the house is vacant. He's reduced his asking price to $295,000 and still has no offers."

"'I bought at the wrong time,' Rosenfield says. 'My assumption was that I'd be able to sell within a month.'"