New home sales dip slightly in September

 Sales of new single-family homes fell in September, but the housing market remains poised to buck seasonal trends nonetheless.

New home sales occurred at a seasonally-adjusted, annual rate of 959,000, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Monday. That represents a 3.5% drop from an downwardly-revised pace of 994,000 homes in August. Compared with last year, new home sales are up 32%.

Last month, the government had reported that new-home sales had exceeded an annual rate of 1 million for the first time since 2006. The government uses a small sample size to produce the new-home sales report, which makes it prone to significant revisions like this.

Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected home sales to increase to a median pace of 1.033 million.

New home sales fell a staggering 28.9% in the Northeast, followed by much smaller declines in the Midwest and the South. Comparatively, the West was the only region to experience an increase in sales with a 3.8% jump.

The decline in September aside, year-to-date new home sales are running nearly 17% ahead of the pace set by this time last year.

The median sales price in July was $326,800, up from August’s median price. The inventory of new homes was 284,000, representing a 3.6-month supply at the current pace of sales. A 6-month supply is considered the benchmark for a balanced market.