Editor’s Note: Updating earlier story with more details from report.
(Kitco News) – Purchases of new U.S. single-family homes last month rose by 12.4% to a seasonally adjusted and annualized pace of 654,000, according to a Commerce Department report Tuesday.
This was well above consensus forecasts compiled by various news organizations, which called for sales to be around 579,000 to 580,000. Last month’s rate is even farther above the July 2015 estimate of 498,000.
Meanwhile, the sales for June were revised down to 582,000 from the originally reported 592,000.
The median sales price of new houses sold in July was $294,600, and the average sales price was $355,800, the government said.
The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of July was 233,000, which represents a supply of 4.3 months at the current sales rate.
By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com
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