WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - In its first report since the end of the government shutdown, the Commerce Department showed new home sales in the U.S. rebounded sharply in the month of November.
The report released Thursday showed new home sales soared by 16.9 percent to an annual rate of 657,000 in November after plunging by 8.3 percent to a revised rate of 562,000 in October.
Economists had expected new home sales to rise to a rate of 560,000 from the 544,000 originally reported for the previous month.
The spike in new home sales came as sales in the Northeast doubled to a rate of 46,000, while sales in the Midwest and South also surged up by 30.5 percent and 20.6 percent, respectively. New home sales in the West fell by 5.9 percent.
Despite the substantial monthly increase, the Commerce Department noted new home sales in November were still down by 7.7 percent compared to the same month a year ago.
The report also said the median sales price of new houses sold in November was $302,400, down 7 percent from $325,100 in October and down 11.9 percent from $343.400 in November of 2017.
The estimate of new houses for sale at the end of November was 330,000, representing 6.0 months of supply at the current sales rate. The months of supply are down from 7.0 at the end of October.
On Wednesday, the National Association of Realtors released a separate report unexpectedly showing a continued decrease in U.S. pending home sales in the month of December.
NAR said its pending home sales index tumbled by 2.2 percent to 99.0 in December after falling by 0.9 percent to a downwardly revised 101.2 in November.
The continued decline in pending home sales surprised economists, who had expected the index to climb by 0.5 percent.
A pending home sale is one in which a contract was signed but not yet closed. Normally, it takes four to six weeks to close a contracted sale.
Compared to the same month a year ago, pending home sales plunged by 9.8 percent, reflecting the twelfth straight month of annual decreases.
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