New home sales in the US, down

New home sales in the United States fell 10.9% in September from the previous month, slightly less than analysts expected, but still 17.6% below the level of sales a year ago.

According to figures from the Department of Commerce, last month 603,000 new homes were sold in annual projection, compared to 677,000 sold in August.

This decrease in transactions is a new sign of the retreat suffered by the real estate market due to the increase in interest rates by the Federal Reserve to try to contain inflation.

The median new home price in September was $470,600, up 13.9% from a year ago. At the end of last month there were 462,000 new homes on the market, up from 457,000 units in August. Homes under construction constituted 65.2% of the inventory and those that were to be built 22.7 percent.

Rates for 30-year mortgage loans, the most common term in the United States, resumed their upward path at the beginning of September and last week stood at 7.16%, a maximum since 2001, according to statistics from the Mortgage Bankers Association .

Mortgage loan orders fell 1.7% last week for the sixth week in a row.

In one month, house prices in the 20 largest cities in the country fell 1.3%, something not seen since March 2009, when the mortgage crisis was raging in the United States.