Sales of new single-family homes in the U.S. jumped by 15.6% in January to an annualized pace of 437,000 units. This was well above market expectations for a 380,000 reading in the month and represents the fastest pace of sales since July 2008. The initially-reported 369,000 reading in December was revised higher to 378,000 units while November’s previously reported 398,000 level was revised down to 393,000. On a regional basis, the surge in January was broad-based among all major regions with sales rising in the West (+45.3%), Northeast (+27.6%), Midwest (+11.1%) and South (+3.2%).
There were 150,000 new homes available for sale in January, unchanged from the previous month. At January’s pace of sales, it would take 4.1 months to clear this entire inventory of new homes, down sharply from 4.8 in December and the lowest supply of new homes since March 2005.
In a separate report released this morning, the Conference Board’s measure of U.S. consumer confidence rebounded sharply from the 14-month low of 58.4 recorded in January (initially reported as 58.6), surging 11.2 points to 69.6 in February. This compares to market expectations for a 62.0 reading going into the report.
