New Home Sales Make Surprise Jump

Oh, residential home sales! You just don?EUR??,,????'???t stop!

Good news for those of you working in real estate. Great news for residential landscapers hoping for new projects. And fantastic news for landscape architects hoping some high-end home owners will be dreaming of finely-designed yards.

New residential sales rocketed 8.9% in March to a seasonally adjusted rate of 1,228,000 as buyers scrambled to acquire houses before an inevitable rise in mortgage rates. The rates have remained historically low since last summer, lending to a growing home prices, and a feeling that rates this low can?EUR??,,????'???t last forever.

The rise in home sales was a surprise to some economists, who had predicted a slight decline in demand. According to a Dow Jones Newswires-CNBC survey, housing sales were to decline 0.8% in March to a rate of 1.154 million units. This prediction reflected the February sales rate revision to a 1.1% decline from the preliminary estimate of a 5.8% increase.

As demand for new homes outstrips supply, potential buyers have entered lotteries in order to ?EUR??,,????'??win?EUR??,,????'?? the chance to buy new homes. In Reno, Nev., about 15 families camped out at Northfield subdivision site to be first in line to acquire one of 14 new homes. The waiting list for one of these homes numbered 242 families, which can be seen as a side-effect of Nevada?EUR??,,????'???s status of the most rapidly growing state in the nation.

The strong demand for a limited supply of housing has also shoved prices to new heights. The national median sales price for a new home reached $201,400 in March. However, some areas exhibited historically-high prices, such as Orange County, Calif., where the median price for a new home reached $485,000 in March. Marin County, Calif. saw the median home price rise to $672,000, and the Bay Area?EUR??,,????'???s median new home price was $474,000.

Present sales are not the only indicator of work to come for the residential landscaper. At the end of March, 372,000 homes were still for sale, a fact that serves as a hint of what kind of work will be available in the future.

Sources: www.marinij.com; www.sfgate.com; www2.ocregister.com; www. Dqnews.com; www.census.gov; www.quicken.com; Reuters

New Houses Sold During Period by Construction Stage -- Survey

Houses Sold by Sales Price / % Distribution -- Survey

(Percentages may not add up to 100 due to rounding)