New-Home Sales Tumbled in June
As Inventories Hit Record High

U.S. new-home sales fell in June as end-of-month inventories reached a record high, and the May sales rate was revised down, according to government data released Thursday.

Separately, demand for durable goods jumped past expectations in June, as commercial aircraft, transportation and computer orders rose, while orders for defense-related capital goods surged, data Thursday said. Jobless claims unexpectedly fell.

Sales of new single-family homes fell 3% in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.131 million, its slowest pace in three months, the Commerce Department said. May sales were revised down to an annual rate of 1.166 million, 5.5% below the earlier estimate of 1.234 million.

The median estimate of 22 economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires and CNBC was for sales to drop 6.4% in June from the previously announced May number to a 1.155 million annual rate.

The Commerce report showed that new homes for sale at the end of June reached a record-high 566,000. That represented a 6.1 months' supply at the current sales rate, the highest inventory-to-monthly sales ratio in three months. In May an estimated 562,000 were for sale, a 5.9 months' inventory. U.S. housing construction and sales have been cooling this year after several years of piping-hot growth driven in part by historically low interest rates.

Earlier this week, the National Association of Realtors said the rate for resales of previously owned homes fell in June, as inventories rose and interest rates edged up. Last week the Commerce Department reported housing starts fell faster than Wall Street anticipated, and the National Association of Homebuilders said its latest index on new home sales fell to its lowest level since December 1991.

The Commerce report Thursday showed new-home sales dropped in all regions except the West. Sales rates fell 11.3% in the Northeast, reaching their lowest level in that region since July 2004. The sales rate fell 7.9% in the Midwest and 6.0% in the South. In the West, the sales rate rose 8.2%.

The average price of a home fell to $290,600 in June from $295,300 in May. The median price was $231,300 last month, down from $235,00 in May. An estimated 103,000 new homes were actually sold in June, down from 107,000 in May based on figures not seasonally adjusted.

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