WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After reporting a sharp increase in new home sales in the U.S. in the previous month, the Commerce Department released a report on Friday showing new home sales continued to spike in the month of June.
The Commerce Department said new home sales soared by 13.8 percent to an annual rate of 776,000 in June after skyrocketing by 19.4 percent to a revised rate of 682,000 in May.
Economists had expected new home sales to jump 3.6 percent to a rate of 700,000 from the 676,000 originally reported for the previous month.
With the much bigger than expected increase, new home sales continued to rebound after falling to the lowest annual rate in well over a year in April and reached their highest level since July of 2007.
New home sales in the Northeast showed a particularly sharp increase, spiking by 89.7 percent to an annual rate of 55,000.
The report said new home sales in the West also surged up by 18.0 percent, while sales in the Midwest and South jumped by 10.5 percent and 7.2 percent, respectively.
The median sales price of new houses sold in June was $329,200, up 6.1 percent from $310,200 in May and up 5.6 percent from $311,800 in the same month a year ago.
Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said the estimate of new houses for sale dipped to 307,000 at the end of June from 311,000 at the end of May.
The houses for sales represent 4.7 months of supply at the current sales rate, down from 5.5 months of supply in the previous month.
On Wednesday, the National Association of Realtors released a separate report showing existing home sales rebounded at a record pace in June following three straight months of declines.
NAR said existing home sales spiked by 20.7 percent to an annual rate of 4.72 million in June after plunging by 9.7 percent to a rate of 3.91 million in May. Economists had expected sales to skyrocket by about 24.5 percent.
'The sales recovery is strong, as buyers were eager to purchase homes and properties that they had been eyeing during the shutdown,' said Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist.
He added, 'This revitalization looks to be sustainable for many months ahead as long as mortgage rates remain low and job gains continue.'
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