WASHINGTON, March 26 (UPI) -- New U.S. home sales fell 3.9 percent to the lowest rate in nearly seven years, the U.S. Commerce Department reported Monday.
New single-family home sales fell to an annual rate of 848,000 units in February from a downwardly revised 882,000 in January, the department said. This was the lowest level since June 2000, when the figure was 793,000.
Many economists had forecast new-home sales would rise to about 1 million units in February.
February's figure was 18.3 percent less than year earlier, the department said.
The median sales price of a new home rose $6,800, or 0.3 percent, to $250,000 from $243,200 in January and $250,800 a year earlier.
Demand in the Western United States soared 24.6 percent last month, reversing January's 25.8 percent plunge. Sales fell 26.8 percent in the Northeast, 20 percent in the Midwest and 7 percent in the South.
