New home sales in the US unexpectedly increased in April after plunging a month earlier, suggesting the housing market is starting to stabilise. Purchases of single-family houses climbed 0.6 per cent from March to 623,000 at an annualised pace, government data showed Tuesday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists forecast a drop to a rate of 480,000 sales. The median sale price fell 8.6 per cent year-on-year to $309,900. Even with the gain, sales are unlikely to rebound to pre-coronavirus levels, said Alex Barron, an analyst with the Housing Research Centre in El Paso, Texas. “We’re still trying to understand what is the new normal,” Mr Barron said. “Is it sales down 20 per cent from the 2019 level or down 40 per cent?” Mortgage rates near all-time lows may be starting to put a floor under the housing market, helping to explain a recent increase in sentiment among housebuilders. At the same time, soaring unemployment and tighter credit standards may limit the strength of the recovery in housing. Three out of four US regions reported stronger home sales in April than a month earlier, reflecting 2.4 per cent gains in the South and Midwest, the US Commerce Department’s report showed. Purchases climbed 8.7 per cent in the Northeast and dropped 6.3 per cent in the West. The government’s data measures signed contracts to buy houses.