New Home Sales Rise In April

New single-family home sales rose 7.1% in April from March but they are still down 23% from the sales pace of April 2010.  New home inventory fell to 175,00 nationwide in April which is the lowest level on record.  Last week the Census Bureau reported that builders are on pace to start 523,000 homes in 2011.  In early 2006, at the peak of the recent housing boom, builders were putting up homes at a rate of about 2 million a year.

Wall Street Journal May 25, 2011