New home sales rose in April

WASHINGTON, May 23 (UPI) -- New U.S. one-family home sales rose modestly from March to April, the U.S. Commerce Department said Thursday.

New single-family home sales rose 2.3 percent month to month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 454,000 units, a level that is 29 percent above April 2012, when the annual rate was 352,000, the department said.

The median sales price of a new home was $271,600 and the average sales price was $330,800, the report said.

The department said it would take 4.1 months for the market inventory of 156,000 homes to sell at the current pace of sales.