Newly Constructed Home Sales Fell By 0.6% In June

New York, NY (AHN) - New home sales dropped in the United States in June to the lowest level since March, according to a key government report released on Friday.

U.S. home builders have cut down their average prices by a record amount, but sales still declined by 0.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 530,000 units from revised 533,000 units in May and 526,000 units in March.

The market analysts on Wall Street had projected the new home sales to drop at an annual rate of 505,000 units in June, compared to the 512,000 originally reported for the previous month.

The Commerce Department estimated on Friday that the new-home sales have fall down by as much as 33.2 percent compared with the same period a year ago.

The median price of a home sold in June fell by 2.0 percent, compared to the same month a year ago to $230,900. It was up by 1.4 percent from May.

The price of a new household sold in March had plunged by 13.3 percent at an annual rate to $227,600.

The months' supply of homes on the market increased to 10 months, compared to 10.4 months in May and the high of 11.2 month's supply registered in the month of March.

The report also revised new home sales for the months of March, April and May well above 501,000 rate. The annual rate of sales in June remained above the cycle low of 513,000 that was set in March.

The new-home sales dropped mostly in all regions of the country, except North Coast.

In the Northeast, sales increased by 5.3 percent, in the West it dropped by 0.9 percent, in the Midwest sales fell by 2.5 and in the south, the sales dipped by 2.0 percent.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday re-sales of homes and condos decreased by 2.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 4.86 million in June.

The latest re-sales drop is the lowest sales level in 10 years as the number of inventories have increased over the period of 12 months.

The median home price was $215,100 in the month of June, down 6.1 percent from $229,700 in June 2007; While the median price in May this year was reported to be at $207,900.

The lenders have also tightened their standards on home loans as the credit market losses crossed more than $400 billion last month caused by the subprime contagion in summer 2007.