Higher mortgage rates may have held down sales of new homes across the U.S. in May, but not to the extent that economists had anticipated.
Sales of new one-family houses were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.234 million last month, 4.6% higher than the revised April rate of 1.18 million, the U.S. Commerce Department reported on June 26. May's rate, however, was 5.9% below the May 2005 rate of 1.311 million.
Some 556,000 new homes were for sale at the end of May, a 5.5-month supply.
