New Home Sales Surge

Severe cold and snow across much of the nation in January was not enough to put off U.S. home buyers, who purchased 9.6 percent more new houses than they did in December. Besides the weather, analysts also had expected a slowdown in sales due to recent declines in resales, pending home sales, housing starts, and home builder sentiment. Instead, new-home sales hit a seasonally adjusted pace of 468,000 last month, the highest volume in more than five years. Activity spiked 74 percent in the Northeast, 11 percent in the West, and 10 percent in the South but slid 17 percent in the Midwest. The median price of a new home sold in January settled at $260,100, 2.2 percent lower than $265,900 the month before. | Read More