New-Home Sales Down Almost 10%

New home sales declined 9.9% in August (from July's total) to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.237 million units, a sign that the red-hot housing market may finally be slowing.However, compared with sales in the same month last year, new-home sales rose 6.8%. The sales figures, courtesy of the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, also show that the monthly supply of new homes stood at 4.7% in August, the highest reading all year. On Monday the National Association of Realtors reported that existing-home sales increased 2% in August from July's level to 7.29 million units annualized, the second-best reading ever by the industry.