-- New-home sales in the US grew past Wall Street's estimates for March, driven by a demand surge in the Northeast region, government data showed.
Single-family home sales rose 7.4% sequentially to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 682,000 units in March, the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development said Tuesday. The Bloomberg-polled consensus was for a print of 652,000.
The report contained initial estimates for February, showing 635,000 units sold, according to official data.
Sequentially, new-home sales surged by 80% in the Northeast region in March and grew 11% in the South. The Midwest and West regions logged single-digit declines.
The median price of new houses sold in March dropped 5.3% month on month to $387,400, while the average sales price decreased 3.4% to $503,100.
Inventory of new houses for sale edged down 0.4% month on month to 481,000 units at the end of March. That represents a supply of 8.5 months at the current sales rate, down from 9.1-month supply in February, according to official data.
US housing starts unexpectedly jumped in March amid strength in both single-unit and multi-family projects, a separate government report showed Wednesday. Pending home sales increased more than expected in March despite higher mortgage rates, according to data from the National Association of Realtors published last month.