New home sales in the U.S. fell by much more than anticipated in the month of September, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Monday, with sales falling to their lowest level in ten months.
The report said new home sales tumbled 11.5 percent to an annual rate of 468,000 in September from the revised August rate of 529,000.
Economists had expected new home sales to edge down just 0.5 percent to a rate of 549,000 from the 552,000 originally reported for the previous month.
With the bigger than expected decrease, new home sales fell to lowest annual rate since hitting 449,000 last November.
Despite the monthly decrease, the Commerce Department noted that new home sales were up by 2.0 percent compared to the same month a year ago.
The sharp pullback in new home sales in September partly reflected a steep drop in sales in the Northeast, which plunged by 61.8 percent to a rate of just 13,000.
New home sales in the South and Midwest also slumped by 8.7 percent and 8.3 percent, respectively, while sales in the West slid by 6.7 percent.
Meanwhile, the report said the median sales price of new houses sold in September was $296,900, up 2.7 percent from $289,100 in August and up 13.5 percent from $261,500 in the same month last year.
The Commerce Department also said there were 225,000 new houses for sale at the end of September, representing 5.8 months of supply at the current sales rate. There was 4.9 months of supply in August.
Last Thursday, the National Association of Realtors released a separate report showing that existing home sales rebounded by much more than expected in September.
NAR said existing home sales jumped 4.7 percent to an annual rate of 5.55 million in September from a slightly downwardly revised 5.30 million in August.
Economists had expected existing home sales to climb to a rate of 5.35 million from the 5.31 million originally reported for the previous month.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com