New-home sales for March about flat with February at 356,000

The number of new-home sales in March was nearly unchanged from February at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 356,000, according to estimates released today by the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. March’s new-home sales mark a 0.6% decrease from February’s rate of 358,000. But the rate of new-home sales was 30.6% below the March 2008 estimate of 513,000 homes sold. The median sales price in March was $201,400, and the average sales price was $258,000. Fully 34,000 new homes were sold in March, putting the year-to-date number of new homes sold at 87,000, down 38.2% from the 141,000 homes sold a year earlier.