New home sales beat analysts’ estimates and rose by almost 16% from December to January, and were up almost 29% above the January 2012 estimates. Sales of new single-family homes came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 437,000 in January. These new sales numbers finally give some credence to the recent uptick in home builder sentiment, that until now has not been reflected in new home sales. This can be considered another sign of an improving housing market, and while this is positive news for home builders, industry analysts do not expect sales to return to more “normal” numbers (over 800,000 new homes sales a year) until 2015. To read the full article visit USA Today.