New home sales surged some 16 percent in January to their highest rate since July 2008, while The Conference Board index of consumer attitudes rebounded to 69.6 in February from an upwardly revised 58.6 in January.
This latter figure suggests Americans has recovered from the shock of a sharp rise in payroll taxes over the New Year.
Markets were buoyed by the US data, which were both well above expectations, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average recovering half a percent in morning trading.
The jump in sales of newly-built homes is of particular note, as housing construction has typically played a lead role in past US economic recoveries. Separate data released on Tuesday showed that the closely-watched Case Shiller index of home prices in 20 major US cities were 6.8 percent higher in the three months to December 2012 than they had been a year earlier.
