U.S. New Home Sales Up, Durables Down

[CShine]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Buyers rushing to beat rising U.S. mortgage rates pushed new home sales up by nearly 15 percent to a record in May, while businesses saw weaker demand for long-lasting durable goods, government reports showed on Thursday.

The Commerce Department said sales of new homes surged a whopping 14.8 percent -- their biggest monthly gain since April 1993 -- to a record annual rate of 1.369 million units.

A separate report from the Commerce Department showed orders for durable goods, which are items meant to last three years or more, posted an unexpected drop in May, falling 1.6 percent after a 2.6 percent slide in April.

This was the first time since November-December 2002 there were back-to-back decreases in orders.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=568&ncid=749&e=1&u=/nm/20040624/bs_nm/economy_dc

[shraby]

1. Is this another "report"

put out by our truthful administration?

[slappypan]

2. I guess then we are buying houses

but have no stuff to put in them.

[AP]

3. No, you have to way at least six months to remortgage at an inflated

value before you have the money to buy things.