In another upbeat sign for the U.S. housing market, the Commerce Department released a report on Thursday showing that new home sales came in well above economist estimates in the month of April.
The report showed that new home sales climbed 2.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 454,000 in April from the revised March rate of 444,000.
Economists had expected new home sales to rise to an annual rate of 425,000 compared to the 417,000 originally reported for the previous month, reflecting a 1.9 percent increase.
The Commerce Department noted that the annual rate of new home sales is up by 29.0 percent compared to 352,000 in April of 2012.
The monthly increase reflected a 10.8 percent increase in new home sales in the West as well as a 3.0 percent increase in new home sales in the South.
On the other hand, new home sales in the Northeast tumbled by 16.7 percent and new home sales in the West fell by 4.8 percent.
The median price of new houses sold in April was $271,600, up 8.3 percent from $250,700 in March and up 14.9 percent from $236,400 in the same month a year ago.
The Commerce Department said there were 156,000 new houses for sale at the end of April compared to 151,000 at the end of March.
The number of houses for sale represents 4.1 months of supply at the current sales rate, unchanged from the previous month but down by 4.9 months of supply in April of 2012.
On Wednesday, the National Association of Realtors released a separate report showing a modest increase in existing home sales in the month of April.
NAR said existing home sales climbed 0.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.97 million in April from an upwardly revised 4.94 million in March. Economists had been expecting existing home sales to rise to an annual rate of 5.0 million.
While existing home sales reached their highest annual rate in over three years, NAR said sales remain below underlying demand because of limited inventory and tight credit.
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