New Homes Sales Up

This week has seen two more pieces of good housing news. The Census Bureau announced Thursday that new homes increased 3.6 percent in July compared to June. Based on July’s data, the total for his year will be 372,000 sales, up 3.6 percent from June’s annualized rate of 359,000. The year-over-year increase from July 2011 to July 2012 was a whopping 25.3 percent. The word on new-home sales came just one day after the National Association of Realtors reported that existing-home sales rose 2.3 percent in July compared to June—and are up 10.4 percent from the previous year.