The housing market is recovering — very slowly.
As NPR reported this morning, new home sales stayed steady while housing priced nudged upward. This news follows yesterday's report on rising housing prices in urban areas and last week's stories about rising sales of previously occupied homes.
This is not just good news for home owners. A healthy housing market can help improve the broader economy, as this AP story points out. It's good for consumer confidence and spurs their overall spending (though it might not be so great for those trying to buy a home).
Below we take a closer look at August numbers from the Census Bureau news release:
As you can see in the chart above, housing sales are gradually nudging upward. While August new home sales fell slightly compared to sales in July, they are still 27.7% higher than they were in August last year.
BONUS GRAPHIC: Wonder where all those new homes were sold? Mostly in the South. See a regional breakdown below.
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