New home sales rise despite higher rates
Americans responded to higher mortgage rates by snapping up new homes in February at the fastest pace since July.
New-home sales rose 6.1 percent monthover-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 592,000, the Commerce Department said Thursday. That sales pace is nearly 13 percent higher than February of last year, a positive sign for the housing market that demand is robust at the start of the spring home-buying season.
Healthy job growth and a recovering economy have pushed up interest in new homes, while the prospect of rising mortgage rates since the November presidential election may have pulled some sales forward.