The new home sales unexpectedly and surprising went up in February giving a good boost to Wall Street. In the meanwhile the mortgage rates are flat so far today after creeping up some in the last few days.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported this morning that the new home sales went up 4.7 percent in February, which was a very good surprise for the economist and the realtors. The economist, actually were looking the February new home sales rate to be at 300,000. However "The U.S. Census Bureau reported that new home sales rose 4.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 337,000 in February from a revised 322,000 in January. The was the first increase since July, and it comes after sales tumbled to all-time lows in recent months."
The joint statement released by the U.S. Census Bureau and HUD reads the following.
"Sales of new one-family houses in February 2009 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 337,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 4.7 percent (±18.3%)* above the revised January rate of 322,000, but is 41.1 percent (±7.9%) below the February 2008 estimate of 572,000.
"The median sales price of new houses sold in February 2009 was $200,900; the average sales price was $251,000. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of February was 330,000. This represents a supply of 12.2 months at the current sales rate.
"New Residential Sales data for March 2009 will be released on Friday, April 24, 2009, at 10:00 A.M. EDT."
Earlier we had reported that in another good news the Existing Home Sales had unexpectedly risen as well. The National Association of Realtors said on Monday that existing homes sales grew 5.1% to an annual rate of 4.72 million last month, from 4.49 million units in January. It was the largest sales jump since July 2003. It had followed the 5 percent decline in January.
To add a little more good news about the real estate market and the U.S. Economy last week, the Commerce Department reported that initial construction of new homes surged 22% in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 583,000, up from a revised 477,000 in January. It was the first time housing starts increased since June, when they rose 11%.
In one of our previous stories Dow Enjoys A Beautiful Day On Bank Plan we had suggested that if the rally of the past week is sustained we can start to suspect that the markets hit the bottom about a week ago.
Despite higher refinancing cost people are taking advantage of the lower mortgage rates by doing the following:
The consumers are also taking advantage of government plans that are set to help responsible borrowers. These measures in turn translate to jump in existing home sales, in new home sales and housing starts.
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