Is housing hitting bottom?

Tepid conditions persist in the new home sector, but lukewarm activity was still enough to ignite hope for a possible housing bottom later this year.

New home sales were roughly unchanged in March, the U.S. Commerce Department announced Friday, boosted by an upward revision in new home sales for the two previous months (pdf). New home sales fell 0.6 percent to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 356,000 from 358,000 in February. The February figure was revised up from 337,000, and January's sales pace was revised to 331,000 from 322,000.