Partly reflecting a sharp jump in sales in the Midwest, the Commerce Department released a report on Friday showing a much bigger than expected increase in new home sales in the U.S. in the month of November.
The report said new home sales surged up by 5.2 percent to an annual rate of 592,000 in November from 563,000 in October. Economists had expected new home sales to rise by 3 percent to a rate of 580,000.
New home sales in the Midwest spiked by 43.8 percent to a rate of 92,000, while sales in the West climbed by 7.7 percent to a rate of 154,000.
On the other hand, new home sales in the South slumped by 3.1 percent to a rate of 313,000 and sales in the Northeast were unchanged at 33,000.
The Commerce Department also said the median sales price of new houses sold in November was $305,400, up 0.9 percent from $302,700 in October but down 3.7 percent from $317,000 a year ago.
The estimate of new houses for sale at the end of November was 250,000, representing 5.1 months of supply at the current sales rate.
With the significant monthly increase, new home sales in November were up by 16.5 percent compared to 508,000 in the same month last year.
On Wednesday, the National Association of Realtors released a separate report unexpectedly showing a continued increase in existing home sales in the month of November.
NAR said existing home sales climbed 0.7 percent to an annual rate of 5.61 million in November after surging up by 1.5 percent to a revised 5.57 million in October.
The continued increase came as a surprise to economists, who had expected existing home sales to dip to a rate of 5.54 million from the 5.60 million originally reported for the previous month.
With the unexpected increase, existing home sales rose to the highest annual rate since reaching 5.79 million in February of 2007.
by RTT Staff Writer
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com
Business News
