U.S. new-home sales surge past expectations
The numbers: New home sales occurred at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 1.021 million in March, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday. It represented the fastest pace of new home sales since 2006.
The number of new homes for sale at the end of March remained unchanged from the month prior, but was down 7% from a year ago. However, when the rate of sales is taken into account, the inventory in March only equated to a 3.6-month supply, down from a 4.4-month supply the month before. Builders, for their part, are having enough trouble keeping up with demand in the marketplace already that they aren’t engaging in speculative construction. Of the new homes sold in March, only about a quarter of them had already been constructed — most were instead under construction or not yet started. A year ago, over 40% of the new homes sold were completed.