(CN) - Sales of new homes dropped 7.6 percent in August, the anticipated decline coming just one month after such sales surged to their highest level in nearly nine years.
The Commerce Department said Monday that sales of new homes declined to a seasonally adjusted rate of 609,000 units.
That followed a surge in sales in July, when they jumped 13.8 percent to a rate of 659,000, the fastest pace since October 2007.
Activity fell in all regions of the country except the West.
The median sales price of new houses sold in August 2016 was $284,000; the average sales price was $353,600.
The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of August was 235,000.
At the August sales pace, it would take 4.6 months to exhaust the supply of new homes on the market.
Despite the August decline, sales of new homes are up 20.1 percent from a year earlier.
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