Originally published at A Thousand News.com. Please leave any comments there.

Sales of newly constructed homes rose in September, according to the monthly report from the U.S. Census Bureau, inching up 2.7% from August to an annualized rate of 464,000.

The reading was above the consensus forecast of 450,000, according to economists surveyed by Briefing.com.

But new home sales are still down 33.1% from September of 2007, and far below the pace of the boom years. In 2005, for example, 1.3 million new homes were sold.

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