New home sales in the United States fell by 6.6 percent in June, the largest amount in five months and more than triple what had been expected, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.
The fall left sales of new single-family homes at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 834,000 units. That was 22.3 percent below the level of a year ago.
By region of the country, new home sales plunged by 27.1 percent in the Northeast, 22.5 percent in the West and 17.1 percent in the Midwest. Sales in the South, however, rose by 7.6 percent.
The median price of a new home, the point where half of the new homes are sold for more and half for less, was 237,900 dollars, down 2.2 percent from a year ago. It was the biggest year-over-year price drop since this April.
The report for new home sales came a day after government data showed that existing home sales dropped by 3.8 percent in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.75 million units, the lowest level in four-and-a-half years.
Economists believe that the ongoing adjustment in the housing sector could linger through the rest of this year as developers are trying to reduce their inventory of unsold homes.
For June, the inventory of unsold new homes was unchanged at 537,000 units.
Source: Xinhua
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