The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development released today their report on new residential sales in February.

Sales of new single-family houses in February 2011 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 250,000. This is 16.9 percent below the revised January rate of 301,000 and is 28.0 percent below the February 2010 estimate of 347,000.

The median sales price of new houses sold in February 2011 was $202,100; the average sales price was $246,000. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of February was 186,000. This represents a supply of 8.9 months at the current sales rate.

In the South, new home sales were at 148,000 in February, compared to 158,000 in January and 180,000 in February of last year.