With the flood of bad news hitting the markets all at once, something hopeful happened Wednesday morning. That's when investors learedn sales of new U.S. single-family homes raced to a 12.5-year high in January. The tidings pointed to housing market strength that could help to blunt any hit on the economy from the coronavirus and keep the longest economic expansion in history on track.
Figures released by the U.S. Commerce Department said on Wednesday new home sales jumped 7.9% to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 764,000 units last month, the highest level since July 2007.
December’s sales pace was revised up to 708,000 units from the previously reported 694,000 units. Economists had forecast new home sales, which account for about 12.3% of housing market sales, would advance 3.5% to a pace of 710,000 units in January.
New home sales are drawn from permits and tend to be volatile on a month-to-month basis. Sales surged 18.6% from a year ago. New home sales jumped 30.3% in the Midwest to their highest level since October 2007. They soared 23.5% in the West to their highest level since July 2006 and rose 4.8% in the Northeast. But sales fell 4.4% in the South, which accounts for the bulk of transactions.
