New-Home Sales Drop
New-home sales fell for the fourth-straight month in August to the lowest level in a half year as the bursting of the housing bubble continues to plague the U.S. economy.</br></br>Sales fell by 2.3% on a monthly basis to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 295,000, the Commerce Department said Monday. It was the weakest pace in six months and the seventh-worst month on records dating to 1963.</br></br>The results, however, were in line with forecasts, and July's results were revised upward slightly to a rate of 302,000. Compared with a year earlier, when new-home sales hit a record-low pace of 278,000, new-home sales were up 6.1%.</br></br>August was an especially weak month for the new-homes market for several reasons. Turmoil in financial markets after Standard & Poor's unprecedented downgrade of U.S. debt, fears of a renewed recession and Hurricane Irene all combined to keep buyers away.</br></br>Given all those negative factors, "we are moderately relieved at this number," wrote Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics. "Still, the market is dead, and even record-low mortgage rates are not doing anything to help."