New-home sales inch higher in April

Sales of new single-family homes increased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 352,000, up 0.3% from the previous month, according to data released Thursday from the Department of Commerce.

New home sales are down 34.0% from April 2008.

Meanwhile, the inventory of new homes for sale declined 4.2% to 297,000 units, which is a 10.1-month supply at the current sales pace. These are encouraging statistics, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

"The fact that the new-homes inventory is now below the 300,000 mark shows that builders have made substantial progress in winnowing down their backlogs to a much more comfortable level," noted Joe Robson, chairman of the NAHB and a home builder from Tulsa, Okla. April's results mark two consecutive years of monthly declines in the number of unsold new homes.

The number of newly built single-family homes on the market shrank to 297,000 units in April, thinning supplies to their lowest level since May 2001, according to government figures released today. The report noted that the pace of new-home sales held virtually even with the previous month, at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 352,000 units.