What a difference a month ? and a change in weather ? can make: a new report shows that after plunging 11.4% in March, new home sales rebounded in April, rising nearly 7% in the first full month of spring and jumping 26% over sales reported in April of last year.
According to a report released Tuesday morning by the U.S. Department of Commerce (and compiled using data from the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development) sales of newly-constructed single-family homes reached an annual rate of 517,000 in April, a figure that marks a 6.8% rise over sales in March (which were revised to a seasonally-adjusted rate of 484,000 homes) and growing an impressive 26% over the 410,000 rate reported for April of 2014.
The April sales rate beat the analyst consensus compiled by Bloomberg, which had called for a rate of 508,000. It?s also above 2014?s annual rate of 437,000, but some observers warned against getting too excited by Tuesday?s report.
?Even with the increase in sales over the previous two years, new home sales are still close to the bottoms for previous recessions,? economist Bill McBride (of the popular blog Calculated Risk) wrote in a note Tuesday morning. ?The inventory of completed homes for sale is still low, and the combined total of completed and under construction is also low.?
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