U.S. New Home Sales Increase From Downwardly Revised Level In October

After reporting a sharp increase in U.S. new home sales in the previous month, the Commerce Department released a report on Wednesday showing new home sales saw continued growth in the month of October.

The report said new home sales rose by 0.4 percent to an annual rate of 745,000 in October after spiking 7.1 percent to a downwardly revised rate of 742,000 in September.

Economists had expected new home sales to decrease by 1.3 percent to an annual rate of 790,000 from the 800,000 originally reported for the previous month.

New home sales in the Midwest surged up by 11.0 percent to a rate of 81,000, while new home sales in the South edged up by 0.2 percent to a rate of 450,000.

On the other hand, new home sales in the Northeast plunged by 11.8 percent to a rate of 30,000 and new home sales in the West slid by 1.1 percent to a rate of 184,000.

The Commerce Department also said the median sales price of new houses sold in October was $407,700, up 0.7 percent from $404,700 in September and up 17.5 percent from $346,900 a year ago.

The estimate of new houses for sale at the end of October was 389,000, representing 6.3 months of supply at the current sales rate.

On Monday, the National Association of Realtors released a separate report showing an unexpected increase in existing home sales in the month of October.

NAR said existing home sales climbed 0.8 percent to an annual rate of 6.34 million in October after spiking by 7.0 percent to a rate of 6.29 million in September.

The continued increase surprised economists, who had expected existing home sales to slump by 1.4 percent to a rate of 6.20 million.

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