U.S. new home sales rise to four-month high in November

Sales of U.S. new homes rose in November to a four-month high, echoing an improving housing market in the past three months.

The sales of new single-family houses in November were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 592,000, 5.2 percent above the revised October level, and 16.5 percent above the same period last year the Commerce Department said Friday.

The data is higher than the market expectation of 575,000, and the sales for October were unrevised at 563,000.

The median sales price of new houses stood at 305,400 U.S. dollars in November. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of November was 250,000 units, which represented a supply of 5.1 months at the current sales rate.

Existing home sales, the major part of the U.S. housing market witnessed a third straight month growth, rising 0.7 percent from October to 5.61 million in November, the highest since February 2007, 15.4 percent above a year ago, said the National Association of Realtors (NAR) on Wednesday.

Improving job market and possible mortgage rates hike after the Federal Reserve raising the interest rate drove buyers into the market, said NAR. Enditem