Homes Sales Up, But Below Expectations

The state of the economy, falling wages, and rising unemployment have had a dramatically negative impact on homes sales over the past year, but several factors have recently contributed to a turnaround in the home market. However, the 0.7 percent gain in home sales that was seen last month was far below what analysts on Wall Street expected.

New-home sales increased in August to 429,000, up from the 426,000 homes that were sold in July, according to statistics released by the Commerce Department. Although it was the fifth consecutive month to feature an increase in home sales, the percentage of growth was much smaller than the 3.4 percent of August 2008 and the number of homes sold was significantly under the 440,000 homes that Thomson Reuters predicted.

Every region in the United States posted a decrease in home sales except for the West region, which includes California. New-home sales throughout the West rose 12.1 percent last month compared to July, but the number is still far below the 30.4 percent gain seen in August 2008.

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