More people bought new homes for a second straight month in April. Nevertheless, sales remain far below the pace that would represent a healthy housing market. New home sales rose 7.3% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 323,000 homes, the Commerce Department says. A normal housing market would mean a pace of about 700,000 new home sales. People have little incentive to buy new homes, in part because they’re expensive by comparison with homes for resale on the market. The median price of a new home rose more than 2% from March, to $217,900. New home prices are more than 30% higher than the median price of resales—twice the normal markup. Last year, Americans bought the fewest number of new homes on records going back 47 years.
National new home sales up, but pace remains sluggish
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