According to a report released by the Commerce Department today, this past March more people bought new homes than expected after three straight months of declines. New-home sales rose 11 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted rate of 300,000 homes.
Last week, new data showed that, despite the fact that home prices continued to decline, home resale volumes bounced back in March which is an encouraging sign of recovery for the housing market.
According to the National Association of Realtors existing home sales this past March rose 3.7 percent from February to an annual rate of 5.10 million units. March's increase outpaced some economists predictions which had the market at a smaller increase of 5.0 million-unit pace.
Michael Gapen, an economist at Barclays Capital in New York said, "The underlying trend for existing home sales is improving, but only at a gradual pace. Demand should gradually firm as labor market conditions continue to improve."
Economists are cautiously optimistic home sales will continue to rise as the year progresses as national unemployment are starting to fall and significant job growth was seen in February and March. As a result this may finally put a bottom under home prices.