More people purchased new homes in November, but not enough to signal better times are ahead for the battered housing industry, The Associated Press reports.
The Commerce Department says sales of new homes rose 5.5 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 290,000 units. That gain came after sales had fallen to the second-lowest level in 47 years in October.
Economists believe it could take three years to get back to a more normal rate of 600,000 sales per year given a continued glut of unsold homes and falling prices.
