Home builders saw a decline in new home sales last month, and it was the Northeast that took the biggest beating.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the rate of new home sales came in at an annual rate of 468,000
during September.
Sales slid from the previous month, when the seasonally adjusted annual rate was a downwardly revised 529,000.
The data was jointly reported Monday by the
Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Sales were slightly better than in the same month last year, when the seasonally adjusted annual rate was 459,000.
The Northeast took the biggest hit, with the rate plummeting 62 percent from August to an annual rate of 13,000.
Sales slowed nine percent in the South to a seasonally adjusted rate of 274,000.
In the Midwest, the rate was down eight percent to 55,000, while a seven percent
decline was recorded for the West to a rate of 126,000.
Without adjustments for seasonality,
36,000 new homes were sold last month, fewer than the 43,000 sold a month earlier.
The latest activity
left 225,000 new homes for sale at the end of September 2015. The inventory decreased from 135,000 the prior month but was up from 116,000 in the year-earlier month.
That put the inventory at a 5.8-month supply at the current pace. It would have taken 4.9 months to clear out the August inventory and 5.5 months to sell the September 2014 inventory.
The median sales price for the most-recent month was $296,900, and the average was $364,100.
