U.S. consumer confidence declined in April for the third consecutive month.

However that doesn’t appear to have affected housing sales. The U.S. government said sales of new homes shot up 12.2% in March to the highest level in history.

The U.S. Conference Board said today that its Consumer Confidence Index fell 5.3 points to 97.7 for April, down from a revised reading of 103 in March. The new reading was slightly lower than the 98 forecast by analysts.

The new figure takes the index to its lowest point since last November, when it registered 92.6.

“Less robust current conditions and a more cautious outlook have consumers feeling less confident in April than in March,” said Lynn Franco, director of the New York-based Conference Board’s Consumer Research Center.

“Looking ahead consumers do not anticipate an improvement in economic growth nor in their incomes. And they expect an even tighter job market over the summer months,” Franco said.

Despite the decline, the Conference Board says the Present Situation Index remains at levels indicative of a healthy economy. However, the Expectations Index is now at its lowest level since July 2003 when it registered 86.3.

The Conference Board said its expectations index declined for the fourth consecutive month, falling to 87.2 from 93.7. The number of consumers expecting business conditions to improve fell to 17.8% from 19.3%. Those expecting conditions to worse rose to 9.7% from 8.2%.

In a separate release, the U.S. Commerce Department said new single-family homes were sold at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.43 million units in March, confounding the consensus forecast of a small decline in sales in March, a month when mortgage rates had been inching higher.

Instead, sales climbed past the old all-time high of 1.3 million units at an annual rate set last October. Sales of both new and existing homes have set new records for four straight years, but analysts are expecting demand to cool off a bit in 2005 as mortgage rates climbed higher.