US new home sales snap back unexpectedly

Sales of new homes in the US rose unexpectedly in November, although some economists believed that they remained "an accident waiting to happen".

According to the Department of Commerce, new home sales rebounded by 5.8% month-on-month to reach an annual pace of 640,000.

Economists had forecast a drop from October's initially estimated pace of 632,000 to 600,000.

In the event, it was October's print that was revised lower to 605,000, alongside those for August and September.

The median sales price dipped from $484,700 but the average price increased from $533,400 to $543,600.

Measures in terms of months' supply worth of sales, the inventory of homes available slipped from 10.5 months' worth in October to 10.2.

"Whatever the cause of the apparent resilience in new home sales, we doubt it will last, given that the current level of mortgage demand is consistent with sales of 350-to-400K per month," said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

"A sudden plunge in sales in the months ahead remains a decent bet."

"New home sales increased for the second month in a row in November," chipped in Sam Hall, property economist for Capital Economics.

"That is at odds with other measures of market activity, which have fallen sharply in response to the jump in mortgage rates. We doubt this marks the start of a recovery and still expect 2023 to be a weak year for sales."