New home sales in the USA rose last month at the fastest rate since 2005, the US Commerce Department said yesterday in a report, highlighting the case that the hammered US residential real estate market is staging a recovery. Separately, official figures showed that new orders for durable goods tallied up their biggest jump in 2 years in July, as aircraft purchases soared and the US Cash-for-Clunkers program fueled a big rise in demand for automobiles. Sales of new homes jumped by 9.6% to an adjusted annual rate of 433,000 in July. The 4th consecutive monthly rise beat even the most bullish forecasts of Wall Street analysts and exceeded the revised June jump of 9.1%. New home sales are still off by 13.4% compared with the same month a year ago. Buyers are responding to low prices and the popular 1st time home buyer tax credit which has succeeded in luring people back to the market. The median price of a new home slipped a bit to US$210,100 in July and is off by 11.5% year-on-year.
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