US new home sales rise in February

Sales of new single-family homes in the US rose a touch more than expected in February, official data published on Wednesday showed.

According to figures released by the Commerce Department, new home sales increased 2% from January to a seasonally-adjusted rate of 512,000. This marked the best level since December and was slightly ahead of economists’ expectations for a rate of 510,000.

Meanwhile, January’s figure was revised up to 502,000 from 494,000 previously reported.

The median price of a new home was $301,400, up 2.6% from the same month a year ago.

Sales in the West were up an impressive 38.5% to an annual rate of 151,000 but sales in the Northeast fell 24.2%, while the Midwest saw a 17.9% drop and sales in the South slid 4.1%.

"This is something of a relief after the bigger-than-expected drop in existing home sales suggested that some buyers, at
least, deferred their purchases in the wake of the drop in stock prices in the early part of the year," said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.