New home sales climbed 17.5% to the highest level in eight months in December, the government reported Wednesday. Sales of newly built single-family homes rose to an annual rate of 329,000 units last month, from a revised 280,000 units the month before, the Commerce Department said. That was the highest level since April. But compared with 2009, sales are down 7.6%. The monthly sales figure was higher than the annual rate of 300,000 analysts surveyed by Briefing.com had expected. The median sales price of new homes was $241,500, up from $215,500 the month before. At the end of December, 190,000 new homes were for sale, equal to a 6.9-month supply at the current pace