New home sales drop

The government says new home sales in October fell 5.3 percent to the lowest level in 18 years.

Sales of new homes last month were down 40 percent from levels of a year ago.

The median price of a new home sold in October fell to 218,000.

That is down 7 percent from a year ago.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller report indicated that home prices had dropped a record 16.6 percent in the third quarter from the same period a year ago.

Prices are at levels not seen since the first quarter of 2004.

Also this week, a trade group reported that sales of existing homes fell 3.1 percent last month.