New US Single-family Home Sales Post Biggest Gainer in 24 yrs

New US Single-family Home Sales Post Biggest Gainer in 24 yrs

$DIA, $SPY, $QQQ, $VXX

New US single-family home sales recorded their biggest across the board gainer in 24 years in April, tapping a more than 8-year high.

Tuesday’s report from the US Commerce Department, also showed a rise in new home prices to a record high, further evidence of a pick-up in economic growth that could allow the US Fed to raise interest rates sooner rather than later.

New home sales rose 16.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 619,000 units, the highest level since January 2008. The per cent increase was the largest since January 1992.

Data for February and March were revised to show 39,000 more units sold than previously reported.

US economists had forecast new home sales, which account for about 10.2% of the housing market, rising to only a 523,000 unit-rate last month.

New home sales increased broadly, with the exception of the Midwest. April’s increase, however, probably exaggerates the housing market strength given that homebuilders confidence has stagnated since rising in January.

New home sales are extremely volatile M-M and preliminary figures are subject to large revisions because they are mostly drawn from building permits data. Still, last month’s gain pushed new home sales well above their Q-1 average of 531,667 units.

The new home sales report came in the wake of fairly upbeat data on home resales and residential construction. It also added to retail sales and industrial production reports in suggesting that the economy was gathering speed after growth slowed to a 0.5% annualized rate in Q-1.

The PHLX housing index hit a 1-month high on the new home sales data

Last month, the inventory of new homes on the market fell 0.4% to 243,000. At April’s sales pace it would take 4.7 months to clear the supply of houses on the market, down from 5.5 months in March.

With supply tight, the median price for a new unit increased 9.7% from a year ago to a record $321,100. The average price rose 13.5% from a year earlier to $379,800.

Single-family homes sales fell 4.8% in the Midwest.

Tuesday, US major stock market indexes finished up at: DJIA +213.12 at 17706.05, NAS Comp +95.27 at 4861.05, S&P 500 +28.02 at 2076.06

Volume: Trade was below average with about 867-M/shares exchanged on the NYSE

• NAS Comp -2.9% YTD
• Russell 2000 -0.1% YTD
• S&P 500 +1.6% YTD
• DJIA +1.6% YTD

Stay tuned…

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