Yesterday's increase in New Home Sales caught some economists by surprise. I look at those sorts of numbers suspiciously.Any time I want some insight into any particular datapoint, I find it instructive to go to the actual government source's website, and simply click around. If you do this with a skeptical eye, you may learn some really interesting facts.
That's what I did with the New Home Sales yesterday, simply looking at the release and trying to figure out what they were really saying thru the bureaucratic jargon and legalese. You don't need to be a forensic accountant (but it couldn't hurt).
Here's what I found: