The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a joint press release today detailing trends for sales of new, single-family homes in April 2011, showing a 7.3% rise in home sales from March 2011. This puts the month’s estimated total at 323,000 sales, but the struggles of the housing market are still evident as this number is significantly less than the estimated 420,000 sold in April 2010, a decrease of 23.1%.
“There’s still a tremendous overhang in the housing market, and while new home sales are starting to percolate, that doesn’t change the fact that we still have such huge inventory,” Michael Yoshikami, chief investment strategist for Ycmnet Advisors told Reuters today.
The inventory for new homes for sale at the end of the period dropped, with 175,000 units on the market; slightly less than the March 2011 inventory and considerably lower than the 217,000 new houses on the market at the end of the April 2010 period.
HUD data lists the median sales price of new units sold in April 2011 as rising slightly to $217,900, up from last year’s $208,300.
The data also shows that in April 2011, the average new home sale was on the market for a median 8.8 months, just slightly longer than 8.7 months in March 2011. The time spent on the market dropped 3.7% from April 2010.
Regionally, the South, Midwest, Northeast, and West all saw increases in home sales since March 2011, with the West posting the highest percentage increase, at 15.1%.
View the Census and HUD data release here.
Written by Alyssa Gerace
