2019.03.2910:26:00UTC+00U.S. New Home Sales Jump Much More Than Expected In February

A report released by the Commerce Department on Friday showed a much bigger than expected increase in U.S. new home sales in the month of February as well as substantial revisions to the previous data.

The Commerce Department said new home sales surged up by 4.9 percent to an annual rate of 667,000 in February from the revised January rate of 636,000. Economists had expected new home sales to increase by about 1.3 percent.

The report also showed the 6.9 percent plunge in new home sales originally reported for January was revised to an 8.2 percent spike, although the jump in new home sales in December was also revised to a 3.9 percent slump.

With the increase in February, new home sales are at their high level since hitting a rate of 672,000 last March and up 0.6 percent compared to the same month a year ago.

New home sales in the Northeast and Midwest soared by 26.9 percent and 28.3 percent, respectively, while home sales in the South climbed by 1.8 percent and home sales in the West were unchanged.

The Commerce Department also said median sales price of new houses sold in February was $315,300, up 3.8 percent from $303,900 in January but down 3.6 percent from $327,200 in February of 2018.

The estimate of new houses for sale at the end of February was 340,000, representing 6.1 month of supply at the current sales rate.