2017.03.2310:30:00UTC+00U.S. New Home Sales Jump To Seven-Month High In February

New home sales in the U.S. saw a substantial increase in the month of February, the Commerce Department revealed in a report on Thursday, with sales jumping to their highest level in seven months.

The report said new home sales spiked by 6.1 percent to an annual rate of 592,000 in February after surging up by 5.3 percent to a revised 558,000 in January.

Economists had expected new home sales to climb to a rate of 565,000 in February from the 555,000 originally reported for the previous month.

With the much bigger than expected increase, new home sales soared to their highest level since reaching an eight-year high of 622,000 in July.

The sharp jump in new home sales was partly due to strength in the Midwest, where new home sales shot up by 30.9 percent to a rate of 89,000.

New home sales in the West also showed a significant increase in February, climbing by 7.5 percent to a rate of 157,000.

While new home sales in the South also rose by 3.6 percent to a rate of 313,000, new home sales in the Northeast tumbled by 21.4 percent to a rate of 33,000.

The Commerce Department also said the median sales price of new houses sold in February was $296,200, down 3.9 percent from $308,200 in January and down 4.9 percent from $311,300 a year ago.

The estimate of new houses for sale at the end of February was 266,000, representing 5.4 months of supply at the current sales rate.

On Wednesday, the National Association of Realtors released a separate report showing a bigger than expected pullback in existing home sales in the month of February.

NAR said existing home sales tumbled by 3.7 percent to an annual rate of 5.48 million in February after jumping by 3.3 percent to a rate of 5.69 million in January. Economists had expected sales to drop to 5.58 million.

The bigger than expected decrease came after existing home sales surged up to their highest rate in almost ten years in the previous month.