New Home Sales Make Surprise Surge

Inventory of homes available was unchanged from April at 189,000, but at the current sales rate the monthly supply dropped to 4.5 months from 5.3 months. The supply rate is well below the 6 months considered normal for the market.

The Northeast had the strongest gains with sales up 54.5 percent from April, followed by the West with sales up 34 percent. Midwest sales increased month over month and the South by 14.2 percent.

The positive data for new home sales follows a 4.9 percent month-over-month gain for sales of existing homes. Existing home sales rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million in May but were to be 5 percent lower than the 5.15 million level of May 2013.

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{amchart id=”98″ Residential Housing Statistics (Starts/Permits/Sales)}