February new-home sales up 6.6% in West, 4.7% nationwide
Sales of new homes in western states, including New Mexico, rose 6.6 percent in February from the previous month, better than the national sales increase of 4.7 percent, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Wednesday.
Still, the pace of new-home sales in the West in February still trailed any month of 2008.
February 2009 new-home sales in western states declined 54.2 percent from the same month of 2008, a steeper drop than the national decline of 41.1 percent, said the Census Bureau, a division of the U.S. Labor Department.
An estimated 65,000 new homes were sold in the West in February, up from an adjusted 61,000 in January. In February 2008, 142,000 new homes were sold.