By Sarah Chaney and Ben Leubsdorf 
 

WASHINGTON--U.S. new-home sales rose slightly in June, suggesting continued buyer demand despite a tight supply of homes on the market.

Purchases of newly built single-family homes--a narrow slice of all U.S. home sales--increased 0.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 610,000 in June, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected sales to increase 1.5% to a 619,000 annual rate.

So far this year, the market for new homes has been picking up. From a year earlier, new-home sales grew 9.1% in June, and year-to-date sales have risen 10.9%.

At the current sales pace, there was a 5.4-month supply of new homes on the market at the end of June. There were 272,000 new homes available for sale, the highest level in eight years.

The median sale price for a new home sold in June was $310,800.

Earlier this week, the National Association of Realtors reported sales of existing homes, which represent the bulk of the U.S. market, slid 1.8% in June.

A copy of the full report is available at: http://www.census.gov/construction/nrs.

Write to Sarah Chaney at sarah.chaney@wsj.com and Ben Leubsdorf at ben.leubsdorf@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 26, 2017 10:15 ET (14:15 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.