Economic Snapshot: New home sales rebound after April declines

New home sales have rebounded from April, now back on track for huge year-over-year gains that were seen at the beginning of 2015. Consumer confidence also increased after an April decline and is up year-over-year, but it continues to increase and decrease month-to-month for 2015. 

New home sales 

Single-family new home sales in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 517,000, 6.8 percent above the revised March rate of 484,000 and is 26.1 percent above the April 2014 estimate of 410,000.

The median sales price of new homes sold in April was $297,300 and the average sales price was $341,500. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new homes for sale at the end of April was 205,000, which represents a supply of 4.8 months at the current sales rate.

Consumer confidence

Consumer confidence rose 1.1 points in May to 95.4 after a decline in April. Consumer confidence is up from 82.2 in May 2014.

The Present Situation Index increased from 105.1 to 108.1 and the Expectations Index declined from 87.1 to 86.9.

Consumers who said business conditions are “good” dipped from 25.5 to 25.2 percent while those claiming business conditions are “bad” also declined from 19.2 to 17.4 percent. Those who stated jobs are “plentiful” increased from 19.0 to 20.7 percent while those claiming jobs are “hard to get” rose from 25.9 to 27.3 percent.

The percentage of consumers expecting business conditions to improve over the next six months increased slightly from 15.4 to 15.6 percent while those expecting conditions to worsen jumped from 9.1 to 10.8 percent. Those who anticipate more jobs in the months ahead increased from 13.8 to 14.6 percent and those who anticipate fewer jobs declined from 16.4 to 15.5 percent.

The proportion of consumers expecting income growth was unchanged at 17.4 percent and the proportion expecting a decline increased from 10.8 to 11.1 percent.

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