New home sales in the United States fell by 5.3 percent in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 433,000 units, the lowest level since January 1991, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.

The drop in new home sales was bigger than analysts had expected and left sales 40.1 percent below the level of a year ago.

Regionally, new home sales rose by 22.6 percent in the Northeast last month and were up 6.0 percent in the Midwest. In the West, however, sales plunged by 18.0 percent. Sales in the South declined by 6.0 percent.

The median price of a new home, a typical price of market where half of new homes are sold for more and half sold for less, declined by 7 percent in October from the year-ago level to US$218,000. It was the lowest median sales price since September 2004.

Inventories of unsold new homes at the end of October totaled 381,000 units. That represented a supply of 11.1 months at the current sales rate, up from 10.9 months for September.

A report by the National Association Realtors on Monday showed that U.S. existing home sales decreased by a bigger-than-expected 3.1 percent last month to an annual rate of 4.98 million units. The median price for existing homes plunged to US$183,000, down 11.3 percent from a year ago.

The weak showing for both new and existing homes indicated that the country is still in the grips of a severe housing downturn, according to analysts.

(Xinhua News Agency November 27, 2008)