justme, you are absolutely right! I think yoy is more meaningful when we are discussing anything cyclical, such as real estate sales. However, I think the New Home Sales are released by the Commerce Dept. and the gov’t likes the month to month or quarter to quarter figures. It is up to astute observers like justme and Calculated Risk and Barry Ritholtz, etc. to point out the flaw in the numbers. Once again, the media merely reports what they are given, and don’t provide the analysis that makes sense of it all.