Sales of new homes fell for the second time in three months in January, providing further evidence that the nation’s five-year housing boom is slowing.
The Commerce Department reported Monday that sales of new single-family homes dropped by 5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.233 million units last month. That was a bigger drop than analysts had been expecting and provided support to the view that the housing market is slowing under the impact of rising mortgage rates.
