WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- US new home sales dropped by 9.9 percent in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.24 million units, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

    The August reading defied economists who had been expecting newhome sales to cool slightly in August to 1.35 million units from the revised 1.37 million units in the previous month.

    But new home sales in August rose by 6.2 percent from the same month last year, when sales of new houses stood at 1.17 million units.

    The government data also showed that the median sales price of new homes, a typical market price where half of new homes sold formore and half sold for less, was 220,300 dollars. The average sales price was 283,400 dollars.

    The seasonally adjusted estimate of new homes for sale at the end of August increased by 2.6 percent to 479,000. This representsa supply of 4.7 months at the current sales rate. Enditem