New Home Sales Crush Expectations

New home sales rose 11.6% to an annualized pace of 481,000 in December.

Expectations were for new home sales to rise 2.7% in December to an annualized pace of 450,000, up from November's annualized pace of 438,000, which was a 1.6% decline from October.

This report shows signed contracts, not closed sales, for newly built homes.

In December, the median sale price of new homes was $298,100 with the average price coming in at $377,800.

At the current pace of sales, there is 5.5 months inventory of new homes.

This data comes after the latest Case-Shiller home price report showed that prices rose in November when compared to the prior month, but increased at a slower pace against last year.

More to come ...