New home sales in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 569,000. That was well below the consensus among economists surveyed by Briefing.com for annualized sales of 605,000. The April annualized rate was down 11.4% from March.
The housing market doesn’t look to be on verge of a downturn, though, if you take a look at the longer term trend. Revisions in the last five months added 58,000 more new home sales from November to March than was first reported.
On the downside, however, inventory of unsold new homes jumped to 5.7 months of supply in April against 4.9 months in March. The median price of a new home declined 3.8% year-over-year to $309,200 in April while the average sales price dropped 3.1% to $368,300. New homes priced at $399,999 or less accounted for 71% of new homes sold in April versus 68% in March.
There’s probably not enough negatives here to change thinking at the Federal Reserve on raising interest rates at the June 14 meeting. But let’s call the likely attitude “Views with concern” since the housing market is extremely sensitive to higher interest rates
