FORT WORTH, Texas -- Never mind that the U.S. Commerce Department reported last month that new home sales were up in November. D.R. Horton, one of the largest home builders in the U.S., said its late-2006 sales orders fell 28 percent.
The company said it received orders for 8,771 homes worth $2.29 billion in the last three months of 2006. That compares with orders for 11,463 homes worth $3.17 billion a year earlier.
Even though D.R. Horton's cancellation rate fell to 33 percent in the last three months of 2006 from 40 percent in the previous three month period, Chairman Donald Horton said the cancellation rate was still higher than normal, and the company had to offer buyer incentives in many areas of the country.
The company reported that net sales orders declines in every region of the country, but the decline was the sharpest in the Northeast, the South Central states, and the West other than California.
In related news, the National Association of Realtors announced today it's launching a $40 million advertising campaign to encourage Americans to buy homes, even during the ongoing housing slump.
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The NAR's campaign includes $26 million in television advertising, about twice what the association spent in its 2006 campaign. Television ads are scheduled to begin running Jan. 15, and new radio ads will begin to air Jan. 29.
NAR said the new ads will run more than 8,750 times on national television and radio between January and November. In addition, they'll run more than 25,000 times on local radio stations.
NAR's latest data show the sales of existing homes are down 10.7 percent over the past year. New home sales have dropped 15.3 percent in the past year.
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