U.S. new home sales unexpectedly fall
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Topics: U.S. HOME
New home sales in the Northeast declined 18.2 percent and those in the South dropped 3.3 percent.
September's sales pace was revised higher to 738 thousand units, the highest since July 2017, from the previously reported 701 thousand units.
New home sales, which account for about 11.3 percent of housing market sales, were down in the Northeast (-18.2 percent to 27 thousand); and South (-3.3 percent to 436 thousand), but increased in the West (7.1 percent to 195 thousand); and Midwest (4.2 percent to 75 thousand).
The median new hose price went down 3.5 percent from a year earlier to USD 316.7 thousand in October. The average sales price decreased 2.9 percent to USD 383.3 thousand.
The stock of new houses for sale rose 0.3 percent from the previous month to 322 thousand. At October's sale pace it would take 5.3 months to clear the supply of houses on the market, up from 5.2 percent in September.
Year-on-year, new home sales jumped 31.6 percent. ■