New home sales showed a substantial increase in the month of October, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Wednesday, with the increase in sales more than offsetting the decrease seen in September.
The report said new home sales jumped 25.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 444,000 in October after sliding 6.6 percent to 354,000 in September. Economists had expected new home sales to come in at a rate of 425,000.
The Commerce Department released the data for both October and September on the same day as a result of the recent government shutdown.
The jump in new home sales in October reflected strong growth in all four regions of the country, with the Midwest seeing a standout increase of 34.0 percent.
New home sales in the South also surged up by 28.2 percent, while sales in the Northeast and the West rose by 19.2 percent and 15.2 percent, respectively.
The report also showed that the median sales price of new houses sold in October was $245,800, down 4.5 percent from $257,400 in September and down 0.6 percent from $247,200 a year ago.
Additionally, the Commerce Department said there was an estimated 183,000 new homes for sale at the end of October compared to 190,000 at the end of the previous month.
The number of houses for sale represents 4.9 months of supply at the current sales rate, down from 6.4 months in September.
Last month, the National Association of Realtors released a separate report showing that existing home fell for the second consecutive month in October.
NAR said existing home sales fell 3.2 percent to an annual rate of 5.12 million units in October after sliding 1.9 percent to an annual rate of 5.29 million units in September. Economists had expected sales to drop to an annual rate of 5.13 million units.
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