Sales of New Homes Fall 15.1%

New home sales plunged 15.1% in January when economic problems, a possible war with Iraq and falling consumer confidence apparently cooled the hot housing market.The U.S. Commerce Department reported that sales of newly constructed homes dropped from a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.08 million units in December to 914,000 units in January. National Association of Home Builder economists were expecting a decline in new home sales but they were surprised by the magnitude -- the largest monthly drop since January 1994. NAHB senior economist Michael Carliner attributes part of the decline to a lack of consumer confidence and another part to the blistering sales pace since last August that may have used up the pool of available homebuyers. "We were probably selling [homes] faster than the underlying potential demand," Mr. Carliner said. NAHB forecasts show that new home sales should be running at a 950,000 rate, but Mr. Carliner does not expect a rebound next month because of severe weather. "We could get a rebound later in the Spring," Mr. Carliner said.