home sales fell 11.4 percent last month to an annual rate of 481,000 units, the biggest percentage drop since mid-2013. It was a swift reversal from an annual sales pace of 543,000 in February, the highest since 2008. New-home sales have been volatile on a monthly basis, although sales during the first quarter of this year are higher than in 2014. The volatility points to a real-estate market still tentative in the aftermath of the housing bubble that triggered the Great Depression in late 2007 and the weak recovery that followed. The inventory of new houses available on the market rose 1.9 percent last month to 213,000, but supply still remains less than half of what it was at the height of the housing boom. Despite the March sales decline, homebuilders are hopeful that the spring buying season will attract more buyers.
