New-Home Sales Knock Homebuilders

Stocks in the sector take a hit after the Census Bureau reports fall of 8.5% in March from February.
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Homebuilder stocks fell Thursday after new-home sales data came in lower than economists expected, a sign of continued weakness in the U.S. housing market.

Sales of new homes totaled a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 526,000 in March, down 8.5% from February and 36% from a year earlier, the Census Bureau said. This is the lowest sales pace since 1991, the last major housing recession in the U.S.

The amount of homes for sale at the end of March remained roughly flat from the prior month, at 468,000 homes. However, the weak sales pace sent the month's supply of inventory to 11, up from 10.2 in February.

The median price of a home was $227,600, down from $262,600 a year earlier.

Homebuilder stocks largely traded lower on the news.

Standard Pacific

(SPF)

fell 4%,

D.R. Horton

(DHI) - Get Report

dropped 2.5%,

Centex

(CTX)

declined 1% and

KB Home

(KBH) - Get Report

fell 1.3%.

The data followed

weak earnings reports

from homebuilders

Pulte Homes

(PHM) - Get Report

and

Ryland

(RYL)

, which both booked large quarterly losses and new order declines. Ryland and Pulte shares were essentially flat in morning trading.