October New Home Sales Down 0.3% From September

Sales of new single-family homes fell 0.3 percent to an adjusted annual rate of 368,000 in October, according to figures released today by the U.S. Department of Commerce. September's annual rate was 369,000, and the latest figure remains 17.2 percent higher than the October 2011 estimate of 314,000. The median sales price for October was $237,700, 4.4 percent below the September price of $248,000.

Regionally, new-home sales numbers were mixed in October. The Midwest posted a 62.2 percent gain following a big dip in the previous month, and the West posted an 8.8 percent increase. Meanwhile, the South and Northeast posted declines of 11.6 percent and 32.3 percent, respectively, the latter of which was likely impacted by storm preparations at the end of the month, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).

"New-home sales have been occurring at a fairly steady pace since this summer," said Barry Rutenberg, chairman of the NAHB and a home builder from Gainesville, Fla. "While this is encouraging, housing's recovery is being significantly constrained by overly tight mortgage lending conditions at this time, and policymaker discussions about changes to the mortgage interest deduction could cast a shadow on future housing demand."

"After steady improvement in home sales through most of this year, the pace of that activity effectively leveled off over the four months from July to October," said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. "The latest numbers are right in line with our forecast, which projects that sales will resume a slow, upward trajectory going forward and will end 2012 about 20 percent ahead of 2011."