US new home sales fall in October

Sales of new US single-family homes unexpectedly fell in October, according to data released by the Commerce Department on Tuesday.

New homes sales were down 0.7% from September’s revised level to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 733,000. Analysts had been expecting a 1.1% increase to 709,000.

On the year, however, sales were up 31.6%.

Meanwhile, the median price of a new home was $316,700 in October, up from $310,200 the month before.

The figures also showed that the seasonally-adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of October was 322,000. This represents a supply of 5.3 months at the current sales rate.