Business News
US new homes sales surge most in eight years
Jul 27, 2009, 16:42 GMT
Washington - Sales of new homes in the United States jumped 11 per cent in June, the fastest rate in eight years and a sign that the housing downturn that helped spark a deep recession could be bottoming out, the Commerce Department said Monday.
Purchases increased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 384,000, up from 346,000 in May, beating forecasts by most economists. Sales are still down 21.3 per cent from June 2008.
The US has been hit by a record number of home foreclosures in the last few years, sparked by a drop in housing prices beginning in mid- 2006.
Building company shares surged more than 2 per cent in Wall Street trading Monday morning. The home crisis has severely hampered construction, cost mortgage-lenders hundreds of billions of dollars and fuelled the longest US recession since the Great Depression.
Home price drops of more than 20 per cent are slowly bringing customers back into the housing market. The median sales price for a new home was 206,200 dollars in June, compared to 219,000 dollars in May and an average of 247,900 dollars during 2007.
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