After plunging in January, sales of new homes in the West made a spectacular rebound — driving up overall national activity in the process.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the annual rate of new U.S. single-family home sales
worked out to 512,000 during the month of February.
New home sales improved from the first month of this year, when the seasonally adjusted annual rate came in at an upwardly revised 502,000.
But new home sales have diminished compared to the same month last year, when the rate was an upwardly revised 545,000.
The data were provided jointly by the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Fueling the month-over-month increase were sales in the West, which surged 39 percent from January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 151,000. Activity in the West reversed the prior-month plunge of nearly a third.
A 4 percent decline from January left the rate in the South at 281,000, while the Midwest tumbled 18 percent to 55,000 in February, and Northeast sales were down nearly a quarter to 25,000.
Without any seasonal adjustments,
U.S. new home sales totaled 44,000 in February 2016.
There were a seasonally adjusted 240,000 U.S. housing units for sale at the end of February, up 2 percent from a month earlier and 18 percent higher than a year earlier.
At the current pace of U.S. sales, it would take 5.6 months to clear out the new home inventory. While the supply was no different than in January, it expanded from 4.5 months in February 2015.
Last month’s median sales price was $301,400, and the average sales price was $348,900.
