New-home sales fall in Dec., rise for year
WASHINGTON - Sales of new U.S. homes cooled off in December compared with November, but for the year were the best since 2009.
WASHINGTON - Sales of new U.S. homes cooled off in December compared with November, but for the year were the best since 2009.
The Commerce Department said Friday that new-home sales fell 7.3 percent last month, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 369,000. That's down from November's rate of 398,000, which was the highest in 21/2 years.
For the year, sales rose nearly 20 percent to 367,000. That's the most since 2009, although the increase is coming off the worst year for new-home sales since the government began keeping records in 1963. Sales are still below the 700,000 level that economists consider healthy.
"Despite the fallback in sales in December, the housing market recovery remains on track," said economist Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors Inc. in Holland, Bucks County. Naroff added that he remains "very optimistic about economic growth this year."
The housing market began to recover last year, roughly five years after the housing bubble burst. Stable job gains and record-low mortgage rates encouraged people to buy houses. Prices have been rising on a sustained basis. And builders started to increase construction of homes, partly because the supply of homes had thinned to extremely low levels.
For December, new-home sales fell 29 percent in the Northeast, 11 percent in the West and roughly 8 percent in the South. Only the Midwest showed strength, with sales rising 21.3 percent.
The median price for a new home rose in December to $248,900, up 1.3 percent from November and 13.8 percent from December 2011.
The supply of homes for sale inched up to 151,000 - the most in a year.
Fewer homes for sale have helped drive prices higher and make many markets more competitive. They also have encouraged more homebuilding.
