sales of new singlefamily houses in the us increased again in january hitting its highest level in 10 months adding to hopes that the current housing market downturn could be bottoming out here are the main takeaways from the commerce departments report published friday new home sales rose 72 in january on month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 670000 the highest level since march economists polled by the wall street journal expected home sales to increase 06 to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 620000 despite recent gains sales were 194 below compared with the same month a year earlier when they stood at an adjusted annual rate of 831000 december new home sales were upwardly revised to 625000 from an initial estimate of 616000 monthly new home sales data are volatile and often revised data for january came with a margin of error of 204 percentage points the median price of a new home fell to 427500 in january from 465600 a month earlier the seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of january was 439000 representing a supply of 79 months at the current sales rate