Updated: 23-May-17 10:24 ET

April New Home Sales

Updated: 23-May-17 10:24 ET

Highlights

• New home sales in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 569,000. That was well below the Briefing.com consensus estimate of 605,000 and down 11.4% from the upwardly revised March rate of 642,000 (from 621,000).

Key Factors

• Taking into account the revisions for just the prior five months, there were 58,000 more new home sales between November and March than previously thought.
• The downturn in new home sales in April was paced by the West region, which saw a 26.3% month-over-month drop in new home sales. Every region, though, saw a monthly decline: Northeast (-7.5%); Midwest (-13.1%); and South (-4.0%).
• Based on the April sales pace, the inventory of unsold new homes jumped to 5.7-months' supply versus 4.9 months in March.
• The median price of a new home declined 3.8% year-over-year to $309,200 while the average sales price dropped 3.1% to $368,300.
• New homes priced at $399,999 or less accounted for 71% of new home sold in April versus 68% in March

Big Picture

• The key takeaway from the report is that upward revisions to prior months more than made up for the shortfall in April relative to the consensus estimate, which is to say the April report is not as disappointing as it appears to be at first blush.

Category	APR	MAR	FEB	JAN	DEC
Total Sales	569K	642K	607K	599K	548K
Inventory (months)	5.7	4.9	5.2	5.2	5.6
Median Price Y/Y	-3.8%	2.3%	-3.9%	9.0%	11.3%