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New home sales roar
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June 29, 1998: 10:51 a.m. ET
Sales hit 890,000 annual rate in May, the ninth straight month over 800,000
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - New home sales in the United States soared to a record annual rate of 890,000 in May, stoked by low interest rates, rising incomes and continuing strength elsewhere across the economy, the Commerce Department reported Monday.
The figures marked the ninth straight month in which sales topped the 800,000 a year rate. It is the longest string of such robust results in the 35 years the agency has compiled such data.
Wall Street forecasts called for an 860,000 annualized rate. Instead, new home sales jumped 16.5 percent in May above the year-ago level of 764,000. The increase came on the heels of a revised 6.4 percent leap in the April rate, to 887,000.
New home sales were strongest in the West, jumping 15.7 percent to an annual rate of 265,000, the highest since December 1979, when sales were 266,000. Northeast sales rose 3.3 percent to an annual rate of 94,000.
In the Midwest, sales slumped to 142,000, a 4.1 percent drop, while in the South they declined 6.7 percent to an annual rate of 390,000.
Prices for new homes rose in May to an average of $184,500, from $174,600 in April. 
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