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New Home Sales Jump to Almost 5-Year High

  • February 26, 2013

by UrbanTurf Staff

New Home Sales Jump to Almost 5-Year High: Figure 1

In yet more optimistic news for the housing market, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday that January sales of new single-family homes reached its highest level in four and a half years.

New home sales increased by almost 16 percent between December and January, reaching a seasonally adjusted rate of 437,000 units annually. The Commerce Department reported that it was the largest month-over-month percentage increase in 20 years.

As home sales increase, inventory continues to hover at or near record lows. From the Commerce Department:

The supply of new homes for sale was unchanged last month at 150,000. That’s barely above August’s total of 143,000 – the smallest supply of new homes on records dating back to 1963. At the current sales pace, it would take just 4.1 months to exhaust the number of new homes for sale, the lowest in eight years.

The new home sales news comes right on the heels of Case-Shiller’s report Tuesday morning that home prices rose 7.3 percent nationally over the last year.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/new_home_sales_jump_to_almost_5-year_high/6713

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