Financial News: U.S. New Home Sales Unexpectedly Jump To One-Year

U.S. New Home Sales Unexpectedly Jump To One-Year High In April

05/23/2023 - 11:10:00 (RTTNews)

(RTTNews) - New home sales in the U.S. unexpectedly spiked to their highest level in a year in the month of April, the Commerce Department revealed in a report released on Tuesday.

The report said new home sales jumped by 4.1 percent to an annual rate of 683,000 in April after surging by 4.0 percent to a revised rate of 656,000 in March.

Economists had expected new home sales to decrease to an annual rate of 670,000 from the 683,000 originally reported for the previous month.

With the unexpected increase, new home sales reached their highest level since hitting a rate of 707,000 in March of 2022.

The extended surge in new home sales reflected strength in the South and Midwest, where new home sales soared by 17.8 percent and 11.8 percent, respectively.

On the other hand, new home sales in the West tumbled by 9.1 percent and new home sales in the Northeast plummeted by 58.6 percent.

The Commerce Department also said the median sales price of new houses sold in April was $420,800, down 8.2 percent compared to $458,200 a year ago.

The estimate of new houses for sale at the end of April was 433,000, which represents a supply of 7.6 months at the current sales rate.

Last Thursday, the National Association of Realtors released a separate report unexpectedly showing a steep drop in U.S. existing home sales in the month of April.

NAR said existing home sales plunged by 3.4 percent to an annual rate of 4.28 million in April after tumbling by 2.6 percent to a revised rate of 4.43 million in March.

The extended pullback surprised economists, who had expected existing home sales to inch up by 0.1 percent compared to the 2.4 percent slump originally reported for the previous month.

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