Forex Marketz Daily Forex News – Fully Markets Update
Nothing makes us happier to know we were wrong. Especially when data hits the news wires showing the US housing market might be better than expected. However, there are still problems, as there is a big glutton of supply and home prices are still going up. Yesterday, single-family home sales surged higher in the world’s largest economy. They are now at their highest levels in seven years. This comes despite a cruel winter.
A hopeful sign? Maybe.
The United States Commerce Department said that new home sales rose 7.8 percent, annual, to a seasonal adjusted 539,000 units. This is the highest level since February 2008. The numbers for January were also revised higher. This was re-tallied at 500,000 units, up from the first number of 481,000 units. Economists expected this number, for February, to come in at 465,000 units sold.
How is this Number Calculated?
New home sales are counted when the contract is signed. These gains come even though we had a lot of snow and record breaking cold temperatures throughout most of the Northeast. There was also record breaking snowfall as well, in Boston, New York, etc.
Home sales jumped 152.9 percent in the Northeast. They fell just under thirteen percent in the Midwest. Sales in the south were up ten percent and down six percent in the West. As sales are moving higher, supply of new houses fell 1.4 percent to 210,000. At the current sales pace, it would take nearly 5 months to clear the supply of new homes on the market. This is down from five months in January.
