New home sales in the U.S. unexpectedly showed a substantial increase in the month of November, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Friday.
The Commerce Department said new home sales surged up by 17.5 percent to an annual rate of 733,000 in November from the revised October rate of 624,000.
Economists had expected new home sales to drop to 654,000 from the 685,000 originally reported for the previous month.
While new home sales unexpectedly increased in November, the revised October data reflected a 1.7 percent decrease compared to the previously reported 6.2 percent jump.
With the spike, however, new home sales in November were at their highest annual rate since reaching 778,000 in July of 2007.
The report showed a notable increase in new home sales in the West, which soared by 31.1 percent to a rate of 194,000.
New home sales in the South also shot up by 14.9 percent, while new home sales in the Northeast and Midwest jumped by 9.5 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively.
The Commerce Department said the median sales price of new houses sold in November was $318,700, down 0.3 percent from $319,600 in October but up 1.2 percent from $315,000 a year ago.
The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of November was 283,000, representing 4.6 months of supply at the current sales rate.
On Wednesday, the National Association of Realtors released a separate report showing a bigger than expected jump in existing home sales in the month of November.
NAR said existing home sales soared by 5.6 percent to an annual rate of 5.81 million in November from an upwardly revised 5.50 million in October.
Economists had expected existing home sales to rise to a rate of 5.52 million from the 5.48 million originally reported to the previous month.
With the much bigger than expected increase, existing home sales reached their highest level since hitting 6.42 million in December of 2006.
by RTT Staff Writer
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