New US home sales down 7% in December

Sales of new one-family homes fell 7 percent from November to December, the U.S. Commerce Department said Monday. Sales reached a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 414,000, down from the revised November rate of 445,000. From a year earlier, sales rose 4.5 percent -- in December 2012, the seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales posted was 396,000. The median sales price of a new home was $270,200 in December, down from November's $270,900. The department said it would take five months for the inventory of 171,000 new homes on the market to sell at the current rate of sales.