New home sales down 0.6 percent in May

WASHINGTON, June 24 (UPI) -- New home sales in the United States dropped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 342,000 in May, the U.S. Commerce Department reported Wednesday.

Sales of new single-family homes declined 0.6 percent from April's revised rate of 344,000.

May's rate is 32.8 percent below May 2008, when home sales were at an adjusted rate of 509,000.

The median sales price of a new home sold in May was $221,600 with an average sales price of $274,300.

The Commerce Department said the seasonally adjusted estimate of 292,000 new homes on the market in the United States at the end of the month would take 10.2 months to sell at the current pace of sales.