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Housing sales up in April help economy along

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

New data analysis from the National Association of Home Builders reveals that sales of newly built, single family homes climbed 3.3 percent in April on a year-over-year basis.

This is good news for the economy as it continues to recover and is counting on the housing market to help spearhead recovery, as well as for the stock market which ebbs and flows based partly on news related to housing starts, sales and consumer confidence across the industry.

The number of newly built, single family homes sold in April climbed to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 343,000 units, according to data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Census Bureau.

"The increase in April sales activity is in line with other important housing measures that have shown continued, gradual improvement from the first quarter as more consumers look to take advantage of today's low interest rates and affordable home prices," said NAHB Chairman Barry Rutenberg, a home builder from Gainesville, Florida. "In markets where demand is rising, we could be seeing a faster pace of recovery if not for persistently tight lending conditions that are slowing both the building and buying of new homes."

The news from a regional perspective reveal that new home sales climbed 7.7 percent in the Northeast and 28.2 percent in the Midwest, with the West seeing its new home sales climb 27.5 percent for April. Meanwhile, the South was the only region to post a decline, as it saw its sales of newly built homes decline 10.6 percent in April.

"Today's report is representative of the kind of modest but consistent gains that we expect to see in new-home sales through the remainder of 2012," said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. "As indicated by our most recent builder surveys, more consumers are taking advantage of historically low mortgage rates amidst firming economic and job market conditions in certain areas."

On May 15, U.S. stocks climbed from three-month lows due in part to news from the NAHB on homebuilder confidence. The NAHB/Wells Fargo index revealed that builder confidence for May climbed to its highest level since May 2007.

Investors may want to stay abreast of the latest economic news before taking part in online stock trading opportunities.



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