It is a tale of two different stories. On one hand, the housing market continues to improve. This month there was obviously a rush to get locked in with a new home as mortgage rates are perceived as rising. That helped to move up this months sales by a whopping 15% over last.

However, it should be noted that manufacturing, especially in regard to the the regions is not doing so well.

Just in case you were wondering, here is the long-term chart of new home sales.