U.S. new home sales up nearly 67% in March, highest since 2006

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau showed that new home sales in March after the quarterly adjustment to an annualized 1.021 million, the highest level since 2006, compared to February appeared more than 20% growth, compared to last year’s low after the new crown blockade is up 66.8%.

In terms of sub-regional data, the Northeast, Midwest and South regions saw a 20.0% to 40.2% rise in new home sales in March from a year ago, while the West saw a 30% decline from a year ago.

The new home sales boom comes at a time when inventories are on a downward trend. According to statistics, the current inventory of new homes is 3.6 months supply, which is still below the accepted 6-month equilibrium target, and also shows a decline compared to the revised 4.4 months supply in February.

Also according to statistics, the median price of new homes for sale was $330,800, up about 0.8% on an annualized basis. In stark contrast, soaring home sales prices, which were released earlier this week, rose 17.2% year-over-year in March, a record increase, while the median price of $329,100 also set a new all-time high. Financial blog ZeroHedge said after the data was released that prices of new and completed homes have not been this close since 2005.

According to data released earlier this week, quarterly annualized home sales in March were 6.01 million units, up 12.3 percent compared to the same month last year but down 3.7 percent compared to February, the second straight month of declines, and a seven-month low, with sales figures also below market expectations.

Wall Street News said in an article at the time that one of the reasons for the decline in home sales was the tight supply in the market. According to statistics, the supply of homes for sale at the end of March was 1.07 million units, roughly the same as last month’s level, down 28.2% from last year, and it takes 2.1 months to digest the above inventory if calculated at the current sales pace. In addition, the pace of home sales accelerated relative to last month, with an average speed of only 18 days from listing to sale, while 83% of the homes sold in March were listed on the market for less than a month.