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March 25, 2010

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Home » Business » Real Estate

New home sales drop to lowest

By Alan Zibel | March 25, 2010, Thursday | Print Edition

SALES of new homes in the United States fell unexpectedly to the lowest level on record in February as stormy winter weather kept buyers on the sidelines.

The weak results make clear the difficulties facing the housing industry as it tries to recover from the worst slump in decades.

The US Commerce Department yesterday reported new home sales fell 2.2 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 308,000.

It was the fourth consecutive month of declines and the worst showing on records dating to 1963.

January's results, meanwhile, were revised upward slightly to a pace of 315,000.

Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected February sales would rise to an annual rate of 320,000.

Sales plummeted dramatically in parts of the country that were hit with bad weather. In the Northeast, they fell 20 percent from a month earlier. Midwestern sales shrank 18 percent. Sales fell nearly 5 percent in the South but rose 21 percent in the West.

The new home sales report reflects signed contracts to buy homes rather than completed sales and gives economists a feel for how many buyers were out shopping for new homes in a given month.

The number of new homes up for sale in February rose slightly to 236,000. At the current sales pace, it would take more than nine months to exhaust that supply.

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