U.S. New Home Sales Pull Back By 1.5% In April

A report released by the Commerce Department on Wednesday showed a pullback in new home sales in the U.S. in the month of April.

The report said new home sales fell by 1.5 percent to an annual rate of 662,000 in April after jumping by 2 percent to a revised rate of 672,000 in March.

Economists had expected new home sales to drop to a rate of 679,000 from the 694,000 originally reported for the previous month.

The decrease was primarily due to a steep drop in new home sales in the West, which plunged by 7.9 percent to a rate of 176,000.

On the other hand, the Commerce Department said new home sales in the Northeast surged up by 11.1 percent to a rate of 40,000.

New home sales in the South also edged up by 0.3 percent to a rate of 355,000, while new home sales in the Midwest were unchanged at a rate of 91,000.

The report also said the median sales price of new houses sold in April was $312,400, down 6.9 percent from $335,400 in March but up 0.4 percent from $311,100 in the same month a year ago.

The estimate of new houses for sale at the end of April was 300,000, representing 5.4 months of supply at the current sales rate.

On Thursday, the National Association of Realtors is scheduled to release a separate report on existing home sales in the month of April. Existing home sales are expected to dip by 0.2 percent.