New Homes Hit Record Median Price in April, Sales Rise

New home sales rose 2.3 percent on arnseasonally adjusted basis in April to an annual rate of 454,000 units.  The Census Bureau and the Department ofrnHousing and Urban Development also revised the March estimate of new home salesrndramatically upward from 417,000 units to 444,000.  The April rate of sales was 29.0 percentrnhigher than the April 2012 rate of 352,000 units.</p

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis therernwere 45,000 sales during the month compared to 42,000 in March.  This brings the year-to-date total to 153,000rnunits.</p

Sales fell in April in two of the fourrnregions.  In the Northeast the seasonallyrnadjusted annual rate was 30,000 units, down 16.7 percent from March but up 3.4rnpercent from April 2012.  Sales in thernMidwest were down 4.8 percent to a rate of 59,000, an annual increase of 18.0rnpercent.</p

In the South sales rose 3.0 percent month-over-monthrnto an annual rate of 242,000, a 37.5 percent increase from April 2012.  The West was up 10.8 percent to 123,000 unitsrnfrom March to April.  The annual increasernwas 26.8 percent.</p

The national inventory of new homesrnavailable for sale rose by 3.3 percent to 156,000 units compared to March butrnthe increase in sales kept the supply level at 4.1 months.  One year ago there were fewer homes availablern- an estimated 146,000 – but those represented a 4.9 month supply.  More than half of the homes currently on thernmarket (88,000) are in some stage of construction; an estimated 39,000 arerncompleted.   </p

The median price of a new house sold inrnApril was a record $271,000 compared to a median of $236,400 one year earlier.  The average price in the two periods wasrn$330,800 and $287,900.  Of the estimatedrn45,000 homes sold in April 2013, 12,000 sold for less than $200,000 and anotherrn14,000 sold between $200,000 and $300,000. rnSix thousand homes sold nationwide for more than $500,000.

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