By Xavier Fontdegloria
Sales of new single-family houses in the U.S. rose in December for the third consecutive month, recovering part of the ground lost in a year in which transactions fell sharply as surging mortgage rates and high prices kept buyers on the sidelines. Here are the main takeaways from the Commerce Department's report released Thursday:
--New home sales increased 2.3% in December on month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 616,000. This is the highest level since August.
--Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expected home sales to fall 3.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 615,000.
--Sales were 26.6% below compared with the same month a year earlier, when they stood at an adjusted annual rate of 839,000.
--November new home sales were downwardly revised to 602,000 from 640,000 initially estimated.
--Monthly new home sales data are volatile and often revised. December data came with a margin of error of 18.5 percentage points.
--The median price of a new home declined to $442,100 in December from $459,000 a month earlier.
--The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of December was 461,000, representing a supply of nine months at the current sales rate.
Write to Xavier Fontdegloria at xavier.fontdegloria@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
01-26-23 1027ET
