Australian new home sales fall in October after reaching 2 year high

New home sales in Australia fell in October after reaching their highest level in two years in September, a survey of Australian builders released on Thursday by the Housing Industry Association (HIA) showed. The HIA survey found new home sales fell by 3.8 percent in October following a 6.4 percent rise in the previous month. Sales of detached house fell 4.6 percent in October after two consecutive monthly gains. Meanwhile, sales of flats, townhouses and semi-detached houses rose 1.4 percent in the month, following a 19.9 percent jump in September. "We shouldn't make too much of one monthly fall in new home sales, following on as it does from two strong results which led to the highest volume since June 2011," HIA chief economist Harley Dale said in a statement. "It will be important to observe a second leg of upward momentum to new home sales in the months ahead. This outcome would signal further growth in new residential construction activity in 2014 in what will remain a very low interest rate environment." He said the volume of detached house sales increased in all five surveyed states in the three months to October. "That's a good profile for a leading indicator of new home building activity heading into the end of the year," Dale added.