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Summary Sales of new US homes rose 5.7 percent in September from August.
It is a sign of recovery in the distressed housing market, government data released Wednesday showed.Sales of new single-family houses climbed to an annual rate of 389,000, following Augusts downwardly revised pace of 368,000, the Commerce Department said.The September sales rate was 27 percent higher than a year ago, as the housing market shows steady improvement more than six years after prices collapsed from a bubble at the heart of the US recession.New home prices continued to surge in September amid tight inventory of new housing stock that slipped to a 4.5-month supply at the current sales pace from 4.7-months supply in August.The median sales price was $242,400, up 16 percent from a year ago. With housing starts up 30 percent annualized in Q3, residential construction probably led the economic expansion for a fourth straight quarter, said Sal Guatieri at BMO Capital Markets.Guatieri said that while housing activity was still running far below normal levels, the potential for further steady gains is high.
