Sales of new one-family houses dropped in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.072 million, according to estimates released jointly on Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

This represents a decline of 4.3% below the revised June rate of 1.120 and is 21.6% below the July 2005 estimate of 1.367 million. It is also the largest decline since an 11.5% drop in February.

The median sales price of new houses sold in July 2006 was U$230,000; the average sales price was US$293,500. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of July was 568,000. This represents a supply of 6.5 months at the current sales rate.