New Home Sales Surge Unexpectedly

November 29, 2005, USA Today — Sales of new U.S. homes shot up unexpectedly in October, climbing 13% to hit a record pace, according to a government report on Tuesday at odds with other signs of a slowdown in the long-hot housing market. The gain in sales of new single-family homes was the biggest increase since April 1993 and took sales to a record annual rate of 1.42 million units from an upwardly revised 1.26 million in September, the Commerce Department said. Wall Street economists had expected sales to slow to a 1.20 million pace from the 1.22 million rate previously reported for September. The number of homes still on the market at the end of October rose to a record 496,000, but at last month’s hot sales pace that represented only a 4.3 months’ supply, down from 4.7 in September. Sales showed strength in most regions of the country. In the West, they increased 46.9%, the biggest jump since December 1981. Sales rose 43.3% in the Northeast, and 1.9% in the South. The sales pace in both the South and West set records. Sales fell 9.5% in the Midwest.
New Home Sales Surge [USA Today]