Providing further evidence that the nation's five-year housing boom is slowing, sales of new homes fell for the second time in three months in January. The Commerce Department reported Monday that sales of new single-family homes dropped by 5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.233 million units last month.
After setting sales records for five straight years, is slowing under the impact of rising mortgage rates, That was a bigger drop than analysts had been expecting and provided support to the view that the housing market. The 5 percent January drop in sales followed a revised 3.8 percent increase in December and was the biggest setback since a 7 percent drop in November.
The January figure was the highest since an all-time high of $243,900 set in October. Despite the fall in sales, the median price of a new home was up in January to $238,100, compared with $229,000 in December. The median is the point where half the homes sold for more and half for less.
By: Dijon Wainwright
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