WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - New home sales in the U.S pulled back sharply in the month of July, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Tuesday.
The Commerce Department said new home sales plummeted by 10.5 percent to an annual rate of 607,000 in July after spiking by 7.6 percent to an upwardly revised rate of 678,000 in June.
Economists had expected new home sales to slump by 1.3 percent to an annual rate of 628,000 from the 620,000 originally reported for the previous month.
With the steep drop, the annual rate of new home sales tumbled to its lowest level since hitting 576,000 in January.
The substantially upwardly revised annual rate of new home sales in June marked the highest level since hitting 723,000 in December 2025.
The sharp pullback in new home sales partly reflected significant weakness in the Midwest, where new home sales nosedived by 42.7 percent to an annual rate of 43,000.
New home sales in the South also plunged by 13.0 percent to an annual rate of 383,000, while new home sales in the West shot up by 6.2 percent to an annual rate of 138,000 and new home sales in the Northeast soared by 30.3 percent to an annual rate of 43,000.
The report also said the estimate of new houses for sale at the end of July was 488,000, up 1.9 percent from 479,000 in June but down 1.6 percent from 496,000 a year ago.
The estimate of new houses for sale represents 9.6 months of supply at the current sales rate, up from 8.5 months in June and 9.2 months in July 2025.
The Commerce Department also said the median sales price of new houses sold in July was $393,800, 2.3 percent below the June price of $403,100 and 0.9 percent below the July 2025 price of $397,300.
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