US August new home sales up 4.1 pct, median price down for first time since 2003

Sales of new homes rose unexpectedly in August while the median price of a new home fell for the first time since December 2003, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. The rise in August comes after a July's figure was revised lower. The department said new home sales rose 4.1 pct to 1.050 mln units in August from July's downwardly revised 1.009 mln units. The department had earlier estimated about 1.072 mln units were sold in July. The median price of a new sold home rose 0.3 pct in August to 237,000 usd. Median prices have fallen 1.3 pct in the past year, the first decline since December 2003. The inventory of new homes on the market fell 0.4 pct to 568,000 units from July's record inventory of 570,000 units. If the rate of sales stays at levels seen in August, the supply of new homes on the market would take 6.6 months to sell, down from July's record rate of 7 months. Sales rose in every region except the West, where they fell 17.7 pct to 228,000 units. That's the lowest level of homes sold in the West since November 2001.

Unexpected rise on US New Home Sales
Sales of new homes increased unexpectedly in August, breaking the tendency of three consecutive declines, as the average price of a house is lower than the year before.Single family homes sales rose 4.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.050 million according to data published by the Commerce Department .In July, new home sales dropped by 7.5% to 1.009 million, revised from a previously estimated 4.3% decline to 1.072 million. July´s decrease followed after 1.8 and 0.9 losses of May and June respectively.In a year-on-year basis, sales fell 17.4% since August 2005 in a housing market softening process. Financing costs are higher than a year ago the average rate on a 30 year mortgage was 6.52%, while a year ago was 5.82%.