With mortgage interest rates declining even further and consumer confidence improving since April, Conine said that conditions looked favorable for strong sales activity through the balance of the spring home buying season.
New-home sales rose 13.4% in the Midwest, 0.6% in the South and 4.3% in the West. Sales fell nearly 18% in the weather-battered Northeast, where housing activity has been fluctuating wildly for several months.
The median sales price of new houses sold in April was $185,100, which was down slightly from the previous month, the Commerce Department reported.
“Sales of both new and existing homes were slightly above their first-quarter averages in April, and the fundamentals of this housing market continue to exhibit remarkable strength looking forward,” noted NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders.
“With inventories of unsold new homes remaining at quite a healthy level, with impressive house-price performance on a year-over-year basis and with our latest surveys indicating significant optimism among home buyers, we’re clearly headed for a great second quarter,” Seiders said.
“When you add in the terrific interest rate picture, all systems are ‘go’ for home sales — we are definitely on track to equal or surpass the record homes sales of 2002,” he said.
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