New Home Sales April 23New Home Sales, which measure signed contracts on new homes, rose 4.1% from March to April to a 683,000- unit annualized pace. Sales are at their best level in thirteen months, and they were also 11.8% higher than in April of last year.

The median sales price fell from $455,800 in March to $420,800 in April. Note that this figure is not the same as appreciation but represents the mid-price and can be skewed by the mix of sales among lower-priced and higher-priced homes. Recent appreciation reports from Case-Shiller, CoreLogic and the Federal Housing Finance Agency have shown that home prices are rising again.

What’s the bottom line?

The rise in signed contracts for new homes correlates with the low level of existing homes that are listed for sale. This has helped boost confidence among homebuilders, which is a positive sign as more new homes are needed to meet the overall demand among buyers. While there were 433,000 new homes for sale at the end of April, only 70,000 were completed, with the rest either not started or under construction.

This disparity between the high demand for homes and tight supply of both existing and new homes will continue to be supportive of home prices, providing opportunities for buyers who are ready to start taking advantage of appreciation gains.

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