US government data showed that new single family home sales in the US unexpectedly fell in July 2010 to set their slowest pace on record while prices were the lowest in more than 6 and a half years.

The Commerce Department said that sales dropped 12.4% to a 276,000 unit annual rate, the lowest since the series started in 1963, from a downwardly revised 315,000 units in June.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast new home sales unchanged at a 330,000 unit pace last month.

Mr Tom Porcelli, a senior economist at RBC Capital Markets in New York, said that "What we are seeing is the downside of government intervention. It had fanned expectations of a market bottom when in fact, it created a false bottom. We expect home sales to stay at this remarkably low range with remarkably high unemployment. There is also little demand for lending."

(Sourced from www.chinapost.com.tw)