After a downward revision of home purchase figures for previous months, September home sales climbed unexpectedly, Bloomberg reported.

Home sales climbed 4.8 percent to an annual rate of 770,000, matching the average forecast determined by a Bloomberg News survey of economists. The Commerce Department announced a revision of August sales to a 735,000 rate, an 11-year low.



With continuing high mortgage rates and tightened credit, analysts project that residential sales will remain low. Sales of housing-related products are also affected by the decline in demand.

“The profile of sales over the past few months looks a good deal weaker than originally thought,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics LLC in Valhalla, N.Y. “Sales have further to fall.”

The September 2007 median price increased 5 percent from a year ago to $238,000.