New home sales fell 4.5% in January to a low of 801k units. A decline was expected, however not as steep as it was. In the market today, there is a 5.6 months supply still available. However, those in the industry as well as consumers shopping currently already know that there is no way that there is this much of a supply left. The answer here is due to homes that are still in construction being counted in this statistic. Although these homes are technically in the pipeline, for a record number of them they are still in the pre-construction phase.
Some interesting statistics about regional home sales:
10.7% lower in the Northeast
3.7% lower in the Midwest
7.4% lower in the South
1.2% higher in the West