In April, sales of new homes in the United States increased by 14.8% compared to the previous month, reaching a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 504,000 units.
The Department of Commerce also revised the growth rate of new home sales for March upward to 29.8%, marking the largest monthly increase in 47 years.
However, the increase in new home sales in April did not drive a recovery in housing prices; the median home price for the month was $198,000 per unit, a decrease of 9.6% from the previous month.
Two consecutive months of significant sales growth have pushed U.S. housing market activity to its highest level since May 2008, though it remains well below the peak reached before the bursting of the current real estate bubble. Since the U.S. real estate bubble burst in early 2006, the U.S. property market has been undergoing a drastic adjustment and became the trigger for the current global financial crisis.
Economists believe that the increase in housing sales over the past two months was primarily driven by the U.S. government's tax credit incentive policy. This policy expired on April 30. While the U.S. real estate market has shown some recovery alongside the economic rebound, the outlook for the coming months remains uncertain given the persistently high unemployment rate and declining household income.