Bonneville County first-quarter home sales show growth over 2011

Today's big economic indicator story was new home sales and how they fell 7.1 percent in March. The Commerce Department said that sales dropped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 328,000 units. That followed a 7.3 percent increase in sales in February. The figure from February had been revised up from an initial estimate that sales had fallen 1.6 percent.

If you haven't heard the story, here's the link from NPR: http://www.npr.org/2012/04/24/151276146/new-home-sales-drop-after-big-revision

And here's something even niftier, also from NPR, an interactive map that shows county-by-county foreclosure and unemployment rates, plus median household income: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111494514. Here's what the local numbers were:

Bonneville
39,731 households
Foreclosures: 1 in 1,046

Bingham
16,141 households
Foreclosures: 1 in 2,306

Jefferson
8,722 households
Foreclosures: 1 in 2,907

Madison
11,280 households
Foreclosures: Data not available

Fremont
8,531 households
Foreclosures: 1 in 4,266

The best local figures I have for real estate come from the Snake River Multiple Listing Service. Crunching the numbers from the first three months of 2011 and 2012, it looks like business is picking up in Bonneville County and at least holding steady in the outlying areas. Take a look for yourself: