U.S. new home sales off 26% in 2007

New home sales in the U.S. fell 26 percent last year, the steepest drop since the government began tracking sales in 1963.

The U.S. Commerce Department reported Monday that December's new home sales were down 4.7 percent from the prior month, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 604,000 units, the lowest sales rate since 559,000 in February of 1995.

The December median sales price fell 10.9 percent to $219,200 compared with November and was down 10.4 percent compared with a year earlier.

Sales of new homes were down in most regions, especially in the West and South.

Sales of previously owned homes are also down significantly. The National Association of Realtors reported last week that sales of previously owned single-family homes suffered their biggest annual drop in 25 years.

The median price of those homes also fell for the first time in at least four decades.