The Commerce Department has released figures showing that new homes sales have dropped to a 12-year low. While the west has fared well, the rest of the country is showing a very poor performance: the Northeast saw a sales drop of 19.3%, the Midwest 27.6%, and 6.4% in the South. Only the West saw a gain, at 4%.

Over the past year, new home sales have fallen by over 34%, the largest slide since 1991.