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New home sales slip 3.6%
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February 2, 1999: 10:44 a.m. ET
Dec. figure down slightly, but Nov. figure revised to indicate record high
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Sales of new homes slipped in December from a record high but kept up the sizzling pace that made 1998 the strongest year ever for the U.S. housing market, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.
The number of new single-family homes sold in the United States in December eased 3.6 percent to an annual rate of 978,000. That was down from November's annual rate of 1.015 million. The Commerce Department revised that figure to indicate an all-time monthly high.
After the 10 a.m. ET report, the Treasury market rebounded from session lows. Down 28/32 before the release, the benchmark 30-year bond was down a modest 14/32 to 100-16/32 shortly after it. The yield was 5.21 percent.
Americans have been buying up new homes at a heady clip as low mortgage rates, rising incomes and booming stock market wealth have given more people the means to afford their own houses.
December's home-sales pace exceeded the 957,000 predicted by U.S. economists in a Reuters survey. The report looked all the more robust in light of a sharp upward revision to the November rate, which was originally reported as 965,000.
In 1998 overall, 888,000 homes were sold, the most ever. That broke the previous home sales record set in 1977, when 819,000 homes were sold.
Strength in the December figures was led by the Midwest, where home sales soared 18.1 percent. Sales were down in all other parts of the country. They fell 18.8 percent in the West, 7.5 percent in the Northeast and 0.5 percent in the South.
- from staff and wire reports
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