Anxious home builders are sponsoring auctions and cutting prices even further than last year to sell new single-family homes, according to Bloomberg News.

The number of empty new homes reached 195,000 nationally in January, the most since the U.S. Commerce Department began tracking their numbers in 1973.

A report from New York-based CreditSights Inc. -- which, unlike the government, tracks properties after a contract has been signed and notes whether it is later canceled -- places the number of unsold new homes at 370,000.

About 216,000 homes are currently being built, according to the Commerce Department.

The result: Lower home prices for buyers. Some builders are holding auctions to sell new homes at a discount.

Marty Clouser, senior vice president at California-based Kennedy Wilson Inc., told Bloomberg that his company auctioned 450 properties last year, with most selling at 85% to 90% of list price.

The second-largest U.S. builder, Texas-based D.R. Horton Inc., sponsored two Southern California property auctions in February with price cuts of up to 50%. Fourteen auctions are scheduled through April in California, Florida, Arizona, Illinois and Nevada.