After the surprise rise in existing home sales, analysts also expected a modest 1.7% MoM rise in new home sales in January (after plunging in November and rebounding very modestly in December). But, in the face of collapsing mortgage apps, new home sales surprised with a 4.3% MoM surge...

Source: Bloomberg

Median new home price rose 5.3% YoY to $346,400 (average selling price at $408,800) but did drop around 2% MoM...

Source: Bloomberg

21% of new homes sold in Jan. cost more than $500,000, up from 16% prior month.

However, the surge in new home sales comes as mortgage applications crashed by most since April (dropping for 5 of the last 6 weeks)...