U.S. New Home Sales Rise For Second Straight Month In November

(RTTNews) - New home sales in the U.S. increased for the second consecutive month in November, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Wednesday.

The Commerce Department said new home sales climbed 4.3 percent to an annual rate of 490,000 in November from the revised October rate of 470,000.

Economists had expected new home sales to rise 2.0 percent to a rate of 505,000 from the 495,000 originally reported for the previous month.

With new home sales rising for the second straight month, the annual rate in November was up by 9.1 percent compared to 449,000 in the same month a year ago.

The report showed a sharp jump in new home sales in the West, which surged up by 20.5 percent to a rate of 135,000.

New home sales in the South also climbed by 4.5 percent, while new home sales in the Midwest slumped by 8.6 percent and new home sales in the Northeast plunged by 28.6 percent.

The Commerce Department also said the median sales price of new houses sold in November was $305,000, up 6.3 percent from $286,900 in October and up 0.8 percent from $302,700 a year ago.

The estimate of new houses for sale at the end of November was 232,000 compared to 227,000 at the end of October.

The unsold inventory in November represents 5.7 months of supply at the current sales rate, down from 5.8 months of supply in October.

On Tuesday, the National Association of Realtors released a separate report showing that existing home sales plunged to their lowest level in well over a year in November.

NAR said existing home sales tumbled 10.5 percent to an annual rate of 4.76 million in November from a downwardly revised 5.32 million in October.

Economist had expected existing home sales to edge down to a rate of 5.32 million from the 5.36 million originally reported for the previous month.

With the bigger than expected decrease, existing home sales fell to their lowest rate since hitting 4.75 million in April of 2014.