Sales of new US homes again defied predictions of a slowdown in May and rose 4.6 percent, but median sales prices fell and the US Northeast experienced its slowest sales tempo in nearly two years, according to a government report on Monday.
The pace of new home sales rose to a seasonally adjusted 1.234 million unit annual rate from a downwardly revised 1.180 million unit pace in April, the Commerce Department said in a report that showed some signs of demand strength.
The report follows a stronger-than-expected 5 percent increase in May US housing starts last week. The Commerce Department earlier on Monday revised upward data for housing permits, showing that they fell just 1.4 percent in May, compared to an initially reported 2.1 percent fall.
The closely watched supply of new homes for sale at the end of May fell 0.7 percent to 556,000, from a downwardly revised 560,000 in April, which was a record level.
The homes for sale figure represented a 5.5 months' supply at the current sales pace, compared to a 5.8 months' inventory in April.
May new single-family home sales in the US Northeast fell 7.9 percent to an annual pace of 58,000, the slowest rate since July 2004. In the South, sales climbed 6.0 percent to an annual rate of 669,000 units while in the West, sales rose 5.3 percent to a pace of 317,000 units. In the Midwest, sales edged up 2.7 percent to a pace of 190,000 units.