WASHINGTON (AFX) - Sales of new homes rose 13.4 pct in December to 975,000 units compared with November, the Commerce Department said. This is the highest level of new home sales since Nov 1998, and the strongest percentage gain since April of 1993.
The rise was unexpected. The consensus forecast of Wall Street economists was for new home sales to fall by 1.9 pct to 892,000 units. In November, sales fell a revised 7.1 pct to 860,000 units, compared with the initial estimate of a 2.2 pct fall to 909,000.
For the whole of 2000, home sales fell 1.0 pct compared with 1999. Year-on-year, home sales in December were up 6.4 pct.
Sales rose in the midwest and the west and fell in the northeast and the south.
Midwest sales rose 22.1 pct to 166,000 after falling 10.5 pct in November.
Sales in the West rose 38.0 pct to 334,000 following a 9.7 pct fall the previous month.
In the Northeast, sales fell 8.1 pct to 57,000 following a 24.4 pct fall.
In the South, the nation's largest region, sales fell 0.7 pct to 418,000 units after falling 0.7 pct the month before.
The median sales price of a new home fell 9.8 pct to 155,100 usd. The average sales price fell 2.3 pct to 205,100 usd.
At the December sales pace, the nation's inventory of unsold new homes would last 3.9 months, down from 4.4 in November.
Actual sales in December -- without annualization or seasonal adjustment -- were 62,000 units, down 1.6 pct from November.