New home sales in the United States fell to their lowest levels in a year in September. After a brisk couple of months of sales gains, the pace has slowed considerably. The figures for September are considered temporary by industry experts as the price for new homes continues to rise which signals future strength.

On Monday, according to Reuters, The United States Commerce Department announced that new home sales fell in September by a whopping 11.5 percent. The seasonally adjusted level stood at 468,000 units which is the lowest it has been since November of last year. This was a marked downturn from August which saw 529,000 new homes sold.

The Commerce Department’s figures are considered to be rather volatile as things tend to change in the new housing market considerably from month to month. Many experts are optimistic on new housing but others in the industry are far more cautious. New home sales account for nearly 8 per cent of the American housing market.

Those industry experts who have been bullish consider the new housing figures to not be reliable. In addition, they see other indicators that the economy is recovering nicely. Existing home sales as well as confidence in the construction industry has been strong in the past few months as has overall consumer confidence. Prices for U.S. government debt have gone up and the dollar has recently taken a bit of a hit against certain other world currencies.

Growth in the economy has been a rather mediocre 3.9 percent for the third quarter but, again, consumer confidence seems to be up despite businesses continuing to layoff in advance of reducing inventories. New home sales pretty much crashed in the Northeast as sales fell 61.8 percent. Sales were down in The South 8.7 percent and 8.3 percent in The Midwest with sales falling 6.7 percent in The West.

Inventory for new homes is at its highest level since 2010. The inventory of new homes for sale stands at 225,000 as of last month.