New Home Sales Rise in July

WASHINGTON Sales of new homes rose to the fastest pace in a yearduring July, the Commerce Department said today, as optimisticconsumers took advantage of relatively low mortgage rates.

Amid signs that consumer confidence remained buoyant in August,the government said new-home sales posted a third straight monthlyrise in July, up 0.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of715,000. That was the strongest sales rate since March, 1994, whensales were running at 722,000 a year.

A separate report from private industry's Conference Board inNew York said its measure of consumer confidence eased only slightlyin August to 101.0 after a big bound in July to 101.4 …