On Tuesday, the US Commerce Department published a report revealing a significant rise in new home sales in March.
According to the report, there was an 8.8% surge in new home sales, reaching an annual rate of 693,000, compared to February's revised rate of 637,000 after a 5.1% drop. The upswing surpassed economists' forecasts, who had anticipated a rise to an annual rate of 668,000 from the 662,000 initially recorded in the previous month.
The sharp increase in sales was spearheaded by the Northeast, which saw an annual rate of 46,000, going up by 27.8%. The West and South also experienced significant sales increases, with growth rates of 8.6% and 7.7% respectively. Moreover, new home sales in the Midwest surged by 5.3%.
The report also indicated a 1.9% decrease in the median sales price for new houses sold in March. The price was $430,700, down from $438,900 in the same period last year.
As of the end of March, the estimated new houses readily available for sale were 477,000. This figure equates to a supply of 8.3 months at the current sales rate.
In contrast, a report by the National Association of Realtors released last Thursday indicated a sharp decrease in existing homes sales in the US in March. The association's report showed a downturn of 4.3% to an annual rate of 4.19 million, following February's surge of 9.5% to a rate of 4.38 million. Economists had projected the sales of existing homes to slump to a rate of 4.20 million.
