April home sales fall 11.4% to 569,000

The pace of new single-family home sales dropped to a lower-than-expected 569,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate in April from March's near 10-year high, but followed upward revisions to the sales pace in each of the previous three months, data released by the Commerce Department Tuesday showed.

The sales pace was expected to slow to 604,000, based on an MNI survey of economists. Annual revisions were included with the data.

Sales were down in all four regions in April, with a 7.5% decline in the Northeast, a 13.1% drop in the Midwest, a 4.0% decline in the South, and a 26.3% drop in the West.

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New home sales in March were revised up to a 642,000 rate from the 621,000 rate previously reported and is now the highest point since a 727,000 rate in October 2007. February sales were revised up to a 607,000 rate from the 587,000 pace previously reported. January sales were revised up to 599,000 from the previously reported 585,000 rate.

The April sales pace was down sharply from the 616,000 average pace in the first quarter after revisions were included.

The supply of new homes for sale rose by 1.5% to 268,000 in April, the highest level since 270,000 in July 2009. Given recent strength in housing starts, the supply is likely to rise further in the coming months. Based on the movements in sales and supply in April, the months supply surged to 5.7 months from 4.9 months in March and 5.1 months a year ago, hitting its highest point since September 2015.

The median sales price of new homes fell by 3.0% to $309,200 in April and was down 3.8% from April 2016.

Market News International is a real-time global news service for fixed-income and foreign exchange market professionals. See www.marketnews.com.
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