EconoBlog

New home sales fell in March to the lowest level in more than 16 years, according to a key government report on the battered housing market released Wednesday.March sales came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 526,000, the Census Bureau report showed, down 8.5% from a revised 575,000 in February and down 36% from a year earlier. It was the lowest annual rate since October 1991.

Economists were expecting new home sales to decline to 580,000 from the originally reported 590,000, according to estimates compiled by Briefing.com.