It’d be an understatement, and not a small one, to describe investor interest in macro data as “limited” this week.

We’re in the highest of high holidays in the Western world, and that’s carte blanche to tune out.

But, for anyone inclined (or obliged) to care, government data released Monday showed new home sales in the US rebounded in November from one of the sharpest declines in decades.

Recall that sales collapsed the prior month when the South was reeling from a pair of hurricanes. That drop — among the largest in decades — was revised to show a slightly shallower decline, but at 14.8%, it’s still quite pronounced.

Sales recovered in November, rising nearly 6% to a 664,000 annual rate. Sales in the South rose 14% after collapsing 23% the prior month.

Notably, the median sales price, at “just” $402,600, was the lowest since February of 2022.

The average price fell back after an anomalous spike in October, when the mix shift away from the South (where homes are generally less expensive) distorted the data.

Remember: Supply’s not a concern on the new construction side of the equation. In fact, it’s the opposite: There’s a supply glut.

As the figure below shows, unsold new inventory swelled to the highest since late 2007 in November.

It’s the same story month after month: If builders want to clear that inventory, they’ll have to keep offering incentives, which erodes margins, helping explain why builder sentiment remains subdued even as forward-looking measures are more upbeat.

Data out last week suggested the long-frozen resale market may be starting to thaw as buyers adjust to what NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun called “the new normal” of 6%-7% mortgage rates.

According to Redfin data, listings rose 7.6% YoY in the four-week period to December 15, the largest jump since June if you exclude Thanksgiving week, which is apparently unreliable. Dana Anderson cited high prices as an incentive for owners to list and a big jump in consumer confidence following the election. Data out Monday suggested that confidence boost faded almost entirely during the first two weeks of December.