WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- New U.S. one-family home sales jumped 7.9 percent in August, the U.S. Commerce Department said Wednesday.
The department said sales of new homes reached a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 421,000, up from the revised July rate of 390,000.
From a year earlier, sales rose 12.6 percent. In August 2012, the seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales posted was 374,000.
The median sales price of a new home was $254,600 in August, down from $271,600 in July. The average sales price was $318,900, down from $330,800 in July, the report said.
The department said it would take 5 months for the market inventory of 175,000 new homes on the market to sell at the current rate of sales.
In July, it was estimated that the 156,000 homes on the market at the time would have taken 4.1 months to sell out at the current sales pace.
