New Home Sales in U.S. Spike 18.6% in May, Biggest Gain in 6 Years

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It looks like there is some good news on the U.S. housing front this week - new home sales enjoyed their largest sales volume increase since May 2008.
 
According to the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, sales of new single-family houses in May 2014 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 504,000. This is 18.6 percent (±17.3%) above the revised April rate of 425,000 and is 16.9 percent (±19.6%) above the May 2013 estimate of 431,000.
 
These new home sales numbers far exceeded many economists' and Wall Street's expectations of a much lower annual sale rate estimate of 441,000 for May 2014.

The median sales price of new houses sold in May 2014 was $282,000; the average sales price was $319,200. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of May was 189,000. This represents a supply of 4.5 months at the current sales rate.