sales of new singlefamily houses in the us rose in december for the third consecutive month recovering part of the ground lost in a year in which transactions fell sharply as surging mortgage rates and high prices kept buyers on the sidelines here are the main takeaways from the commerce departments report released thursday new home sales increased 23 in december on month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 616000 this is the highest level since august economists polled by the wall street journal expected home sales to fall 39 to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 615000 sales were 266 below compared with the same month a year earlier when they stood at an adjusted annual rate of 839000 november new home sales were downwardly revised to 602000 from 640000 initially estimated monthly new home sales data are volatile and often revised december data came with a margin of error of 185 percentage points the median price of a new home declined to 442100 in december from 459000 a month earlier the seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of december was 461000 representing a supply of nine months at the current sales rate