New home sales stay strong Defy predictions of a slowdown, but rate drops 5.7 percent from a year ago. May 24, 2006: 10:16 AM EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales of new U.S. homes defied predictions of a slowdown in April and rose 4.9 percent while prices climbed, although the supply of homes for sale hit a record, a government report showed Wednesday.
The pace of new home sales rose to a seasonally adjusted 1.198 million unit annual rate from a downwardly revised 1.142 million unit pace in March, the Commerce Department said. Analysts polled by Reuters were expecting sales of new homes to slow in April to a 1.15 million unit pace from an originally reported 1.213 million unit rate in March. However, the April pace was down 5.7 percent from the year-ago rate. In a further sign the long-anticipated cooling in the housing market has not yet taken hold, April's median home price rose 2.8 percent from March to $238,500. The supply of new homes at the end of April reached a new record of 565,000. At the current sales pace, this represented 5.8 months' supply of homes, compared to 6.0 months' supply in March. An earlier report on Wednesday from the Mortgage Bankers Association showed that U.S. mortgage applications fell last week, driven by a steep decline in home buying loans despite a dip in long-term interest rates. Borrowing costs on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, excluding fees, averaged 6.61 percent, down 0.05 of a percentage point from the prior week, which was its highest level in nearly four years. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Protect your PC from spy ware with award winning anti spy technology. It's free. http://us.click.yahoo.com/97bhrC/LGxNAA/yQLSAA/Y2tolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsburyPark/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
