![](\"https:\/\/www.floridarealtors.org\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/full_width_main_image\/public\/page\/image\/2019-07\/gettyimages-173203488_1.jpg?h=9a12d204&itok=ZGJY5YP4\")
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While new-home sales increased, the amount of that increase was less than economists predicted. Year-to-year, new-home sales were down 23%.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n WASHINGTON (AP) \u2013 U.S. sales of new homes edged up 0.4% last month, coming in below expectations as housing prices continued to climb.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that sales of new single-family homes rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 745,000 last month from 742,000 in September. Economists had expected October new home sales to come in at a 795,000 annual pace. And the September sales rate was revised sharply lower from 800,000 in Commerce\u2019s original report.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n New home sales were down 23% from a year earlier.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The median price of a new home, the point where half the homes sold for more and half for less, rose to a record $407,700 last month, up nearly 18% from a year earlier.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n New home sales rose 11% from September to October in the Midwest and 0.2% in the South. They fell 11.8% in the Northeast and 1.1% in the West.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The housing market has been hot, thanks to rock-bottom mortgage rates and pent-up demand from consumers locked in last year by the pandemic.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n On Monday, the National Association of Realtors\u00ae reported that sales of previously occupied homes rose 0.8% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.3 million, the strongest annual pace since January.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n