New Home Sales Surge 23.6% to 330,000 Rate

WASHINGTON — New homes sales increased 23.6% in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 330,000 as the market recovered from its worst month ever, the Commerce Department reported Monday.

June’s sales figure was the second-lowest rate on record. New home sales in May were revised lower to 267,000 from the record low of 300,000 reported last month. Records for this series date back to 1963.

Every region saw a June gain in sales except the West, which fell to a record low of 57,000. Economists expected 320,000 new home sales for the month.

The number of new homes for sale dropped to 210,000, the lowest level since September 1968. The supply of new homes decreased to 7.6 months from 9.6 months in May at the slightly faster sales pace. The median sales priced slipped to $213,400 in June, a 0.8% decline from June 2009 and a 1.4% drop from May.

“It will be a tough summer for housing and the consumer,” Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial, said in a research note. “The level of new home-sales activity remains extremely suppressed. Everything from the end of homebuyer tax credits to the competition created by short sales and foreclosures has contributed to the ongoing weakness in new home sales.”

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