(MENAFN- AFP) Sales of new homes in the United States fell in May following a surge in April, but still remained solidly higher than last year in a growing housing market.
Sales of new single-family houses registered an annual rate of 551,000 units, down 6.0 percent from April, the Commerce Department said. Compared with a year ago, sales were up 8.7 percent.
April's strong gain was downwardly revised to 586,000 units, the most robust pace since February 2008.
Analysts had expected new-home sales would decline in May, but estimated a smaller drop to 560,000 houses.
Sales fell in the Northeast, South and West, but rose in the Midwest.
With sales sluggish, the median sales price of new houses fell to $290,400, the lowest level in 11 months.
Despite the month-over-month volatility, the trend in new-home sales remained firm. In the first five months of the year, sales were up 6.4 percent from the same period in 2015.
"With employment rising strongly and mortgages easier to obtain, we think a sustained upward trend in new-home sales is now a reasonable bet," said Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics.
He pointed to a rising trend in mortgage applications that bodes well for increased sales in the coming months.
Data published Wednesday for the much larger market of existing, or previously owned, homes in May showed strong demand in the crucial spring home-buying season.
The National Association of Realtors reported that existing-home sales grew 1.8 percent in May to an annual rate of 5.53 million units, the highest pace in over nine years.
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