U.S. new home sales rise modestly in September

Sales of U.S. new homes rose in September, echoing a modest increase of U.S. housing market in the second half of 2016

The sales of new single-family houses in June were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 593,000, 3.1 percent above the revised August level, and 29.8 percent above the same period last year the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

The data is lower than the market expectation of 600,000, and the sales for August were revised down sharply to 575,000 from earlier estimation of 609,000.

The median sales price of new houses stood at 313,500 U.S. dollars in September. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of September was 235,000 units, which represented a supply of 4.8 months at the current sales rate.

Existing home sales, the major part of the U.S. housing market increased 3.2 percent from August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.47 million in September, boosted by increasing first-time buyers, said the National Association of Realtors (NAR) last week.

The momentum for sales to first-time buyers may last through the rest of the year and into next spring, primarily supported by consistent job gains and affordable mortgage rates, according to NAR's expectation. Endit