U.S. new home sales fall in January

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Sales of U.S. newly-constructed homes fell for a second straight month in January due to seasonal factors, the U.S. Commerce Department said Monday.

Sales of new single-family house dropped 7.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 593,000 units last month, the lowest level since August 2017, the department said.

The median sales price in January was 323,000 dollars, about 2.4 percent higher than in January 2017. At the current pace of sales, it would take 6.1 months to clear the supply of houses on the market.

The new home sales tumbled 33.3 percent in the Northeast and fell 14.2 percent in the South. Winter weather played a factor in new home sales, economists said.

New home sales, which account for about 10 percent of overall housing sales, tend to be volatile from month to month.

Existing home sales, which account for about 90 percent of U.S. home sales, dropped 3.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.38 million units in January, according to data released last week.