U.S. new-home sales surged in March, capping off a strong first quarter in a segment of the housing market characterized by solid buyer demand, the Wall Street Journal reported. Purchases of newly built single-family homes — a relatively narrow slice of all U.S. home sales — increased 4.0 percent from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 694,000 in March, the Commerce Department said yesterday. March’s rise comes on the back of a 3.6 percent increase in February and upward revisions for both January and February sales rates. The solid sales gains show a low unemployment rate and historically low layoff levels are supporting demand for housing, said Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wells Fargo.
