New home sales posted hefty year-over-year increases in April and showed another cause for optimism among builders.
The housing recovery continued rolling along this morning, with the Commerce Department reporting that new home sales rose 9.9 percent in April from last year.
Sales rose 3.3 percent from March to April, and year-over-year median price of new properties rose 4.9 percent.
Other important information in the Commerce Department’s report included:
- Inventory of new homes rose 1.4 percent, but at 5.1 months supply, it remains near record lows.
- The past three months, new home sales are 14 percent higher than they were in 2011.
Sales in the Midwest rose 28 percent, while increasing 7.7 percent in the Northeast and 27.5 percent in the West.
Interestingly, only sales in the South fell, and the 10.6 percent decline could not be further from what Jeff Morr, founder/CEO of Majestic Properties in Biscayne Corridor and Master Brokers Forum board member, has experienced in the Miami market.
“The market is on fire,” Morr said. “We’re back to 2003 levels.”
Prices, Morr said, are rising daily, and inventories are creeping lower and lower because of the high demand, which is spurred on by the relatively low home values in Miami and market instability in Europe, which has caused many wealthy European investors to purchase property in the U.S.
“It’s definitely a seller’s market,” he said, citing the record $25 million sale of a triplex penthouse in Miami that recently set a new record for the city.