US new home sales rise more quickly than anticipated in March

23rd Apr 2024 15:45

(Sharecast News) - New home sales in the U.S. jumped last month, rising at their strongest clip since September 2023.

According to the Department of Commerce, in seasonally adjusted terms new home sales jumped at a month-on-month pace of 8,8% to reach 693,000.

Economists had penciled-in 668,000.

That followed a downwards revision to the prior month's figure from 662,000 to 637,000.

The median sales price of a new home sold in March was $430,700, against $406,500 during the previous month.

The inventory of new homes available for sale fell from the equivalent of 8.8 months' worth to 8.3.

"It is encouraging that new home sales rose by such a large margin in March, despite mortgage rates hovering around 7% for most of the same month," said Thomas Ryan, property economist at Capital Economics.

"The upshot is we expect new home sales to reach 825,000 annualized by end-2026, higher than they were at any point post-GFC barring a brief pandemic spike."