In this Friday, Aug. 17, 2012, file photo, a worker adjusts a scaffold at the site of a new residential construction project in the East Boston neighborhood of Boston. Sales of new homes in the United States dipped slightly in August from July but the median price of homes sold during the month rose by a record amount. New-home sales edged down to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 373,000 in August, a dip of 0.3 percent from July’s revised rate of 374,000, the Commerce Department said Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012.MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON – Sales of new homes in the United States dipped slightly in August from July but the median price of homes sold during the month rose by a record amount.
New-home sales edged down to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 373,000 in August, a dip of 0.3 percent from July’s revised rate of 374,000, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That had been the fastest pace since April 2010 when government tax credits were boosting sales.
Sales in August were up 27.7 percent from the pace a year ago. But even with that gain, new-home sales remain well below the annual pace of 700,000 that economists consider healthy.
The median price of a new home jumped 11.2 percent in August to $256,900, the biggest one-month gain on record.