New home sales slow nationwide

New home sales slowed nationwide last month. New homes sold in January at an annual rate of 1.23 million homes a month, according to federal government data released Monday. That’s a 5 percent drop from the rate in December, but still up 3.3 percent from January 2005. The data also showed a 5.2 month supply of new homes on the market nationwide in January at the current pace of sales. That supply time is up 2.5 percent from December and up 20 percent from the number of homes available in January last year. The median sales price for a new home sold in January was $238,100, according to the federal government, and the average sales price was $291,000. By Tom Acitelli