Improvement Continued – Sales Still Rising

As reported by CNBC on Thursday new construction home sales were the best on record since 1963. Sales of new homes rose in April to the second highest level since the summer of 2008 while the median price for a new home hit a record high, further signs that housing is recovering. The median price of a home sold in April was $271,600, the highest level on government records going back to 1993. The April price was 8.3% higher than in March and 13.1 percent higher than a year ago. With the April increase, sales are now 29% higher than a year ago, but sales are still below the 700,000 level considered healthy by economists.How’s this translate for those of us in Charleston, South Carolina? According to USAToday, Sales in the South were up 3% but sales fell 16.7%. Sales of previously owned homes rose in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.97 million, the highest level in 3½ years.As the supply of available homes to buy remains tight this trend is likely to continue through the foreseeable future. Applications for permits to build homes rose in April to the highest level in nearly five years. While construction of new homes dipped a little in April, the drop came one month after construction topped 1 million for the first time since June 2008. Several major homebuilders have told of strong annual increases in orders for the first three months of the year, others, said that orders in April jumped 59% from a year earlier.
Some Content Courtesy of USAToday.com

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