New home sales inch ahead again in April

WASHINGTON -- More people bought new homes for a second straight month in April. Still, sales remain far below a pace that would signal a turnaround for the housing market.

New-home sales rose 7.3 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 323,000, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. A healthy real estate market would produce about 700,000 new-home sales a year.

The median price of a new home rose more than 2 percent from March to $217,900.

The housing sector remains the weakest part of the U.S. economy, noted Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics. Sales of new homes have declined 18 percent in the nearly two years since the recession ended.

-- AP