The median price of a new home dropped nationwide in September by the largest
margin in 35 years, which in turn may have helped boost the pace of sales last
month.
Today, the Commerce Department said the median price fell to $217,000 — a
9.7 percent decrease since the same time a year ago and the largest year-over-year
decline since December 1970, when the price fell 11.2 percent.
With prices down, the pace of sales picked up by 5.3 percent and the number
of homes for sale fell to 557,000 from the summer peak of 570,000.
