By Xavier Fontdegloria

Purchases of new single-family houses in the U.S. increased in December for the second consecutive month, signaling strong demand for housing. Here are the main takeaways from the Commerce Department's report released Wednesday:

--New home sales rose 11.9% in December on month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 811,000, the highest reading since March 2021.

--Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expected home sales to rise 1.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 757,000.

--New home sales in November were downwardly revised to 725,000 from an earlier estimate of 744,000.

--Sales were 14% below the same month a year earlier, when sales stood at an adjusted annual rate of 943,000.

--Monthly new residential sales data is volatile and often revised. Data for December came with a margin of error of 20.3 percentage points.

--The median price of a new home was $377,700 in December, down significantly from $416,100 in November and the lowest level since June 2021.

--The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of December was 403,000. This represents a supply of six months at the current sales rate.

Write to Xavier Fontdegloria at xavier.fontdegloria@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 26, 2022 10:28 ET (15:28 GMT)