New Residential Sales Increase in April

 

Sales of new one-family houses in April 2011 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 323,000, which is well below last year?EUR??,,????'?????< Courtesy of Bureau of Labor Statistics

Sales of new one-family houses in April 2011 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 323,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. 

This is 7.3 percent (±16.6 percent)* above the revised March rate of 301,000, but is 23.1 percent (±9.7 percent) below the April 2010 estimate of 420,000. The median sales price of new houses sold in April 2011 was $217,900; the average sales price was $268,900. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of April was 175,000.  This represents a supply of 6.5 months at the current sales rate.

Home prices hit another new low in the first quarter, down 5.1 percent from a year ago to levels not reached since 2002. It was the third straight quarterly drop for the S&P/Case-Shiller national home price index, which was released Tuesday. Prices are now down 32.7 percent from their peak set five years ago.

The housing market went through a brief recovery period starting in mid-2009, recovering nearly 5 percent of earlier losses. After homebuyer tax credits expired last April, the slump resumed.

A separate S&P/Case-Shiller index covering 20 major cities also dropped during March, the index's eighth straight monthly decline. 10 dirt-cheap housing markets. Of the 20 cities, only Washington has posted a home-price gain: 4.3 percent over the past 12 months.

– Courtesy of US Census Bureau, CNN Money