New-Home Sales Rise 5.5% in November

(November new-home sales report updated with additional details.)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Sales of newly built homes rose 5.5% in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 290,000, the Commerce Department said Thursday morning.

>>Homebuilder Stocks: Behind the Numbers

The figure was expected to come in at a rate of 300,000, according to consensus estimates listed on Briefing.com, after sales of newly built homes fell in October to downwardly revised rate of 275,000 units. October's figure was originally reported at 283,000 units.

Despite the uptick, November's new-home sales data remains 21.2% below year-earlier levels.

The median sales price of new homes sold last month was $213,000 while the average sales price was $268,700.

On a seasonally adjusted basis there were 197,000 new homes for sale at the end of November. That represents an 8.2-month supply at the current sales pace, down from an 8.6-month supply at the end of October.

The government data followed a report on Wednesday from the National Association of Realtors which showed that sales of previously occupied homes rose 5.6% in November to a better-than-expected seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.68 million units.

"Continuing gains in home sales are encouraging, and the positive impact of steady job creation will more than trump some negative impact from a modest rise in mortgage interest rates, which remain historically favorable," said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun, commenting on existing-home sales, indicating he is hopeful about the housing market in 2011.