WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The Commerce Department released a report on Tuesday showing new home sales in the U.S. edged slightly lower in the month of October.
The report said new home sales slipped by 0.1 percent to an annual rate of 737,000 in October after surging by 3.8 percent to an annual rate of 738,000 in September. Economists had expected new home sales to come in at an annual rate of 710,000.
The slight decrease came after new home sales reached their highest level since hitting an annual rate of 739,000 in May 2023 in the previous month.
The Commerce Department said new home sales in the West plummeted by 36.3 percent to an annual rate of 109,000.
New home sales in the Northeast also plunged by 14.3 percent to an annual rate of 24,000, while new home sales in Midwest tumbled by 9.0 percent to an annual rate of 91,000.
On the other hand, the report said new home sales in the South skyrocketed by 16.9 percent to an annual rate of 513,000.
The Commerce Department also said the estimate of new houses for sale at the end of October was 488,000, unchanged from September but up 1.7 percent from 480,000 in the same month a year ago.
The estimate of new houses for sale represents 7.9 months of supply at the current sales rate, unchanged from September and down 15.1 percent from 9.3 months in October 2024.
The report also said the median sales price of new houses sold in October was $392,300, down 3.3 percent from $405,800 in September and down 8.0 percent from $426,300 a year ago.
On Wednesday, the National Association of Realtors is scheduled to release a separate report on existing home sales in the month of December.
Economists currently expect existing home sales to jump by 2.4 percent to an annual rate of 4.23 million in December after rising by 0.5 to an annual rate of 4.13 million in November.
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