New US drop in new home sales in February (government)

New home sales fell again in February in the United States, for the second consecutive month, while the decline recorded in January was twice that initially announced, according to figures from the Department of Commerce released on Wednesday.

In February, 772,000 new properties were sold year-on-year, well below the average 820,000 expected by analyst consensus. The figure represents 2% less than in January, when sales fell by 8.4%, according to data revised downwards and also released on Wednesday.

jul/eb/llu/rsr