New Home Sales at Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate of 454,000 in April

by Bill McBride, Calculated Risk

The Census Bureau reports New Home Sales in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 454 thousand. This was up from 444 thousand SAAR in March (March sales were revised up from 417 thousand).

January sales were revised up from 445 thousand to 458 thousand, and February sales were revised up from 411 thousand to 429 thousand. Very strong upward revisions.

The graph shows New Home Sales vs. recessions since 1963. The dashed line is the current sales rate.

"Sales of new single-family houses in April 2013 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 454,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 2.3 percent above the revised March rate of 444,000 and is 29.0 percent above the April 2012 estimate of 352,000."

The months of supply was unchanged in April at 4.1 months.

The all time record was 12.1 months of supply in January 2009.

According to the Census Bureau, using the "not seasonally adjusted" (NSA) year-to-date data there were 153 thousand new homes sold in 2013 through April, up about 26.4% from the 121 thousand sold during the same period in 2012. This is the highest sales for these months since 2008.