New single-family home sales for November came off a record October buying surge, dropping to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.125 million units, the U.S. Commerce Department reported recently. Despite a 12 percent decline from October's record sales pace, the November rate was 3.6 percent above the sales pace of November 2003.

The government revised October's single-family home sales pace upward to 1.278 million units, and the October-November average is above the pace for the first three quarters of the year.