U.S. New Home Sales Unexpectedly Tumble 1.6% In November

(RTTNews) - Sales of new single-family houses in the U.S. unexpectedly decreased in the month of November, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Tuesday.

The report said new home sales tumbled 1.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 438,000 in November from the revised October rate of 445,000.

Economists had expected new home sales to inch up to an annual rate of 460,000 in November from the 458,000 originally reported for the previous month.

With the unexpected monthly decrease, the Commerce Department said the rate of new home sales is down by 1.6 percent compared to 445,000 in November of 2013.

The report also said the median price of new houses sold in November was $280,900, down 3.2 percent from $290,100 in October but up 1.4 percent from $277,100 a year ago.

There were 213,000 new houses for sale at the end of November compared to the 210,000 for sale at the end of the previous month.

The housing inventory represents 5.8 months of supply at the current sales rate, up from 5.7 months of supply in October.

On Monday, the National Association of Realtors released a separate report showing that existing home sales pulled back by much more than expected in the month of November.

NAR said existing home sales plunged 6.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.93 million in November after climbing 1.4 percent to 5.25 million in October. Economists had expected existing home sales to edge down to 5.20 million.

With the bigger than expected decrease, existing home sales fell to their lowest annual rate since hitting 4.91 million in May.