The construction industry is closely linked with real estate in many ways, as it's ultimately the demand for housing that fuels a large percentage of construction jobs. Industry analysts were recently disappointed to hear that March's number of home sales dropped off from their original estimate.
According to the most recent report by the U.S. Commerce Department, U.S. new home sales were actually better than expected in December, January and February. Home sales are often subject to revision, and the changes meant the seasonally adjusted annual rate for February jumped to 353,000 units, up from the originally reported 318,000. The new figures means that February was the best month for home sales since November of 2009, when a federal tax credit for home buyers expired.
This means that rather than home sales rising in March, they actually decreased. The March report indicates an annual rate of 328,000 units, so it's a 7.1 percent drop from the revised February numbers, rather than a marginal increase. However, things are still looking up overall, as the March sales increased more than 7 percent compared to last year.
Overall, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) viewed the report as a good thing, despite the change from an increase to a decrease in the month of March.
"The March decline is from a stronger-than-expected sales pace in February, and looking at the first quarter as a whole, sales are up 3.7 percent from the fourth quarter of 2011," said NAHB chief economist David Crowe. "This is exactly the kind of modest, but substantive, growth that we are expecting to see in the year ahead along with gradual firming of the economy and job market."
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