Washington: Sales of new US single-family homes rebounded strongly in June from the prior month’s record low, pushing the number of houses on the market to the lowest level in nearly 42 years.
But downward revisions to sales estimates for April and May contained in the report on Monday left in place a picture of a weak housing market and perceptions that economic growth moderated some what in the second quarter. New home sales vaulted 23.6% to a 3,30,000 unit annual rate, the commerce department said. Still, the sales pace last month was the second lowest since records started in 1963.
“We can’t take too much joy in one month’s figure. The roadblocks to a healthy housing market are high, the most important one being the still-high jobless rate,” said Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.
The percentage increase last month was the largest since May 1980, and it partially unwound May’s historic 36.7% drop. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast new home sales rising to a 320,000 unit pace last month from May’s previously reported 300,000 units. The report, together withpackage delivery and business services company FedEx Corp’s upgrading of its quarterly and full-year earnings forecasts, lifted stocks on Wall Street. FedEx, regarded as an economic bellwether, said more packages were flowing through both its air and ground networks.
Prices for safe-haven US government debt slipped, while the dollar pulled back from session lows against the yen.Recent data have implied the US economy’s recovery from its longest and deepest recession since the 1930s slowed in recent months, but economists do not expect a renewed downturn.
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