The numbers: New-home sales were at a 673,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate in April, the Commerce Department said Thursday. That was 6.9% lower than March, but that month’s tally was revised sharply higher. April’s figures nearly matched the MarketWatch consensus forecast for a 670,000 pace of sales.
What happened: Even though home sales fell in April, the trend is solidly up. The revised March sales figures were the highest since October 2007, and there were upward revisions to every month stretching back to December.The median sales price in April, $342,200, was 8% higher than a year ago. At the current pace of sales, it would take 5.9 months to exhaust available supply, about matching the 6 months that’s traditionally been considered the marker of an evenly balanced market.
Big picture: Americans still want to be homeowners, but they face stiff headwinds. Reporting on sales figures for previously-owned homes in April, the National Association of Realtors said properties stayed on the market for an average of only 24 days that month. Americans are also keeping a careful eye on mortgage rates: applications jump as rates decline.
Meanwhile, the pace of new-home construction is still tepid. In the year to date, builders have started 7.2% fewer homes than in the same period last year.What they’re saying: Data from a monthly survey “confirms that the housing downturn that was materializing last year appears to have abated,” according to stock research firm BTIG and HomeSphere, a digital marketplace that connects building product manufacturers to homebuilders.
Market reaction: Big publicly-traded builders have had a fantastic 2019: D.R. Horton, Inc. DHI, +1.05% shares have gained 26% so far, while Meritage Homes Corporation MTH, +0.00% shares are up more than 39%. But there have been warning signs in the most recent round of earnings news. Shares of Toll Brothers, Inc. TOL, -1.94% slid nearly 4% Wednesday after the company reported sales were down 9% compared to a year ago.
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