After years of saving, Jordyn Carias and her partner purchased a home for the first time last month. To find a place that didn’t break the bank, she said, they had to go smaller.

The numbers: U.S. new home sales rose 10.9% to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 743,000 in April from a revised 670,000 in the prior month, the government reported Friday. This is the highest ...