WASHINGTON—New-home sales plunged in May to a record low, as buyers faced a lackluster job market without a long-time government subsidy for purchases.
Sales fell 32.7% from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 300,000, the Commerce Department said Wednesday, in an unpleasant report that showed how the end of government support could affect the U.S. housing market.
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"We would be lying if we said the size of the drop was not shocking," Miller Tabak analyst Dan Greenhaus said.
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The level of 300,000 homes sold was the lowest since the government begin compiling this data in 1963. The 32.7% decrease was also a record.
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Year over year, sales were down 18.3%.
The median price for a new home decreased, year over year, in May by 9.6%, to $200,900 from $222,300 in May 2009.
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Regionally, new-home sales plunged 23.9% in the Midwest, 53.2% in the West, 25.4% in the South, and 33.3% in the Northeast.
