Nationwide, New home sales Drop in August

The Associated Press reported earlier this week that, “One month after surging to their highest level in nearly nine years, sales of new homes nationwide retreated in August, with the exception the west, the Commerce Department reported Monday.

“Sales of newly built houses in the west jumped 8% from a month earlier, while nationwide sales dropped 7.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 609,000 units. That followed a surge in sales in July, when they jumped 13.8% to a rate of 659,000, the fastest pace since October 2007.

“The median price of a new home sold in August was $284,000, down 3.1% from July and down 5.3% from a year earlier.”

The AP article added that, “Overall, the new-home market is on the upswing, though sales aren’t back to historically normal levels, said Ralph B. McLaughlin, chief economist with real estate firm Trulia…[S]ales of existing homes also slipped 0.9% in August to an annual rate of 5.33 million units.”

“One problem weighing on the industry is a lack of inventory available for sale,” the article said.

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