Sales of new U.S. homes fell 3.9% in February, hitting the lowest level since June 2000, the Commerce Department said March 26. The report showed an annualized rate of 848,000 new homes sold last month, well below the average Wall Street estimate of 995,000 properties and suggesting the woes are not yet over for the ailing real estate market.
New home sales have fallen 18.3% since February 2006, when the pace was 1.038 million units and the property market still had some sizzle.
The median price of a newly sold home was $250,000 last month, up from the January figure of $243,200 but down 0.3% from a year earlier.
The inventory of new homes on the market in February rose 1.5% to 546,000 units from January's inventory of 538,000 units.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2007
