New Home Sales Retreat in April

Sales of new single-family homes in April fell 11.4 percent from March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 569,000, according to the Commerce Department. Sales were up 0.5 percent from the same month in 2016. The steep slide was unexpected following the ten year high of revised March sales of 642,000.

Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, called April sales “a correction from the March cycle high, not a warning sign.”