"If you have good credit and you're not upside-down on your home, it's a great time to buy a house"
- Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC
New home sales in the U.S. dropped surprisingly last month, but remained near two-year high, while prices soared to the highest level since 2007, a report by the Census Bureau showed Wednesday. Sales of new single-family homes in the U.S. fell to 373,000 last month, down from 374,000 in July. The average sales prices rocketed 11.2% to $256,900, posting the single biggest monthly increase ever recorded.
"If you have good credit and you're not upside-down on your home, it's a great time to buy a house," said Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, North Carolina.
"Simply put, the housing market is recovering, not only are our sales margins and backlogs improving, but the beginnings of a sense of visibility are coming back to underwriting land acquisition and planning for the future," said Stuart Miller, Chief Executive Officer at Lennar Corp.
The Standard & Poor's 500 declined 0.57 per cent to 1,433.32. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged lower 0.33 per cent to 13,413.51. The Nasdaq Composite lost 0.77 per cent to 3,093.70.
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