Good news buzz roundup: home sales plummet. Wait, what?

New-home sales tumbled to the lowest level in 17 years during October, while prices kept retreating. Sales of single-family homes decreased by 5.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 433,000, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. September new-home sales rose 0.7% to an annual rate to 457,000; originally, the government said September sales climbed 2.7% to 464,000. – from WSJ

Sales of newly built single-family homes dropped sharply in October and were running at levels last seen 17-1/2 years ago, according to a Commerce Department report on Wednesday that offered a fresh measure of the U.S. housing sector’s distress.. The annual sales pace of 433,000 was down 5.3 percent from a revised 457,000 in September and was the weakest since 401,000 in January 1991. Wall Street economists had forecast that October sales would be at 450,000-unit pace. – from Reuters

Sales of new homes fell in October to the lowest point in nearly 18 years while the median price of a new home dropped to the lowest level since 2004. The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that new home sales decreased 5.3 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 433,000 homes, the lowest level since January 1991, another period when the country was undergoing a steep housing downturn. – from AP