After dipping slightly in January, new home sales saw a healthy jump in February, rising to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 539,000 units – a 7.8% increase compared to the revised January rate of 500,000 units and a 24.8% above the February 2014 estimate of 432,000 units, according to estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The median sales price of a new home sold in February was $275,500; the average sales price was $341,000.
As of February, there were about 210,000 new homes available on the market, a 4.7-month supply at the current sales pace.
‘Today's numbers are a great start to the spring buying season,’ says Tom Woods, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), in a statement. ‘Hopefully, this is an indicator of how the rest of the year will fare.’
‘Most sales activity continues to be among existing homeowners who are trading up to new construction and taking advantage of low mortgage rates,’ adds David Crowe, chief economist for NAHB. ‘First-time home buyers remain absent from the market, restricted by tight lending conditions.’
Regionally, new home sales increased 152.9% in the Northeast and 10.1% in the South. Sales dropped 6% in the West and 12.9% in the Midwest.