US new home sales jump in March

New home sales in the United States bounced back strongly in March after a sharp downwards revision to numbers the month before.

New privately-owned home sales jumped by 8.8% to a seasonally-adjusted annualised rate of 693,000 last month, according to the US Census Bureau.

This was the highest level in six months and well ahead of the 668,000 expected by analysts. February's sales were revised to 637,000, down from the initial estimate of 662,000.

The data showed that 27.8% growth in the Northeast was combined with single-digit growth in the Midwest (+5.3%), South (+7.7%) and West (+8.6%)

The median sale price for new houses sold in March was $430,700 across the country, while the average price was $524,800.

By the end of the month, there were 477,000 new home for sale, representing 8.3 months of supply at the current sales rate, down from 8.8 months in February.

"It is encouraging that new home sales rose by such a large margin in March, despite mortgage rates hovering around 7% for most of the same month," said Thomas Ryan, property economist at Capital Economics.

"The upshot is we expect new home sales to reach 825,000 annualized by end-2026, higher than they were at any point post-GFC barring a brief pandemic spike."