U.S. New Home Sales Pull Back More Than Expected In October

(RTTNews) - The Commerce Department released a report on Monday showing new home sales in U.S. pulled back sharply in the month of October after soaring in September.

The report said new home sales plunged by 5.6 percent to an annual rate of 679,000 in October after spiking by 8.6 percent to a downwardly revised rate of 719,000 in September.

Economists had expected new home sales to tumble by 4.5 percent to a rate of 725,000 from the 759,000 originally reported for the previous month.

Despite the steep monthly drop, new home sales in October were up by 17.7 percent compared to the same month a year ago.

The Commerce Department also said the median sales price of new houses sold in October was $409,300, down 3.1 percent from $422,300 in September and down 17.6 percent from $496,800 a year ago.

The estimate of new houses for sale at the end of October was 439,000, which represents 7.8 months of supply at the current sales rate. The months of supply is up from 7.2 in September but down from 9.7 in October 2023.

Last Tuesday, the National Association of Realtors released a separate report showing existing home sales in the U.S. tumbled by much more than expected in the month of October.

NAR said existing home sales plummeted by 4.1 percent to an annual rate of 3.79 million in October after plunging by 2.2 percent to a revised rate of 3.95 million in September.

Economists had expected existing home sales to slump by 1.5 percent to a rate of 3.90 million from the 3.96 million originally reported for the previous month.

With the much steeper than expected drop, existing home sales fell to their lowest level since August 2010.