March new home sales +4.5% to 692k SAAR,....>

US DATA: March new home sales +4.5% to 692k SAAR, well above the 648k 

rate expected by MNI and the 650k Bloomberg consensus. 

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- Feb sales rev down to 662k and Jan sales rev down to 625k. 

- The supply of new homes for sale -0.3% to 344k, the lowest level since 

Nov 2018 (334k), but +15.8% y/y. 

- The months supply on market fell to 6.0 months from 6.3 in Feb, and 

rose from 5.3 months a year ago.   

- The median new home sales price -4.0% to $302,700, the lowest since 

Feb 2017 ($298,000), and -9.7% y/y. 

- Sales were down in the Northeast (-22.2%), but up in the Midwest 

(+17.6%), the South (+3.6%), and the West (+6.7%).

- After revisions, the Q1 average sales rate of 660k stands well above 

the 575k average for Q4.