Home Sales Rise Unexpectedly

Reading through Financeblogonline.com (or anywhere and everywhere) you definitely know that housing has been doing terrible over the past many months. But April is a little different.

A government report on the housing market revealed a suprise: new home sales rose. While sales remained near historic lows, they did come up 3.3% to approximately 526,000 according to a survey by briefing.com. Overall, however, compared to last year, home sales were down 42%.

But numbers all around are a little different these days. Builders are having to shell out more incentives such as paying closing costs, free upgrades and other perks. Briefing’s report showed 181,000 completed new homes available, bringing the total inventory out there to just under 500,000.

While the uptick seems positive, it’s probably just a little smoke and mirrors.