Economic data released Wednesday showed that new home sales were higher than they were a month ago, but remained nowhere near their 2005 peak; and durable goods orders also rose but not in a way that signals long-term growth.
Sales of new single-family houses in September rose 6.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 307,000, the U.S. Commerce Department reported. Analysts' consensus was for sales of 300,000.
September's figure compares to a revised August rate of 288,000, which is 21.5% below the estimate of 391,000 in September 2009. At that time, people were starting to take advantage of the federal tax credit of up to $8,000 for first-time homebuyers, which expired on April 30.
Home sales over the past five months are at their worst since the Commerce Department started keeping records in 1963. Just as striking, looking back to 2005, an annually adjusted 1.39 million new homes were sold in July of that year, at the height of the U.S. housing boom.
"While month to month the new home sales number looks good, when you look back at the historic averages, it's poor," said Steve Blitz, senior economist with New York-based ITG Research.
Blitz added that there are "signs of life in the economy," with no signs of a double-dip recession, yet the nation's 2% growth rate is lower than the growth normally seen in a post-recession economic cycle.
