US new home sales fall to lowest level in nearly 18 years
27/11/2008 16:14
New home sales in the United States fell by 5.3 percent in October to a
seasonally adjusted annual rate of 433,000 units, the lowest level since January
1991, the Commerce Department reported yesterday.
The drop in new home sales
was bigger than analysts had expected and left sales 40.1 percent below the
level of a year ago.
Regionally, new home sales rose by 22.6 percent in the
Northeast last month and were up 6.0 percent in the Midwest. In the West,
however, sales plunged by 18.0 percent. Sales in the South declined by 6.0
percent.
The median price of a new home, a typical price of market where half
of new homes are sold for more and half sold for less, declined by 7 percent in
October from the year-ago level to US$218,000. It was the lowest median sales
price since September 2004.
Inventories of unsold new homes at the end of
October totaled 381,000 units. That represented a supply of 11.1 months at the
current sales rate, up from 10.9 months for September.
A report by the
National Association Realtors on Monday showed that US existing home sales
decreased by a bigger-than-expected 3.1 percent last month to an annual rate of
4.98 million units. The median price for existing homes plunged to US$183,000,
down 11.3 percent from a year ago.
The weak showing for both new and existing
homes indicated that the country is still in the grips of a severe housing
downturn, according to analysts.
Xinhua
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