The U.S. Commerce Department announced on Monday that the sales of new single-family homes fell 0.4 percent m-o-m to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 694, 000 units in December, the lowest since July.

Economists had forecast the sales pace of 730,000 last month.

November's sales pace was revised down to 697,000 units from the originally reported 719,000 units.

According to the report, the December drop in purchases of new homes was due to declines in the South (-15.4 percent m-o-m), the largest region, and the Northeast (-11.8 percent m-o-m), which, however, were partially offset by gains in the Midwest (+10.1 percent m-o-m) and West (+31.0 percent m-o-m).

For all of 2019, new home sales surged 10.3 percent to 681,000 units, the highest since 2006.