More green shoots are appearing in the nation's long-dormant housing market.
Sales of new homes rose 3.3% in April from March to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 343,000, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. That was slightly stronger than what most analysts had forecast, and the latest in a string of recent reports suggesting that a housing recovery is taking hold.
On Tuesday, the National Assn. of Realtors said existing home sales increased 3.4% in April from the prior month. And earlier it was reported that new housing starts advanced last month to an annualized rate of 717,000 homes -- the highest level since 2008.
The April sales were almost 10% higher than a year earlier. And the median price, or the midpoint, of new homes sold last month was $230,000 -- up 4.9% from April 2011.
That said, the recent pickup is modest and coming from a very low base. The April pace of new-home sales was still just a fraction of last decade's peak of more than 2 million homes sold in a year, and only about half the average for the last half-century. And uncertainties remain high because of the large number of homes in the foreclosure pipeline.
Source:Latimes.com
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