The U.S. Commerce Department announced on Thursday that the sales of new single-family homes rose 1.6 percent m-o-m to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 842,000 units in December.

Economists had forecast the sales pace of 865,000 last month.

November’s sales pace was revised down to 829,000 units from the originally reported 841,000 units.

According to the report, new home sales in the South, the largest area, declined 5.1 percent m-o-m in December. Meanwhile, sales in the Midwest surged 30.6 percent m-o-m and those in the West rose 8.8 percent m-o-m. In the Northeast, new home sales decreased 6.1 percent m-o-m in December.

In y-o-y terms, new home sales were up 15.2 percent in December.

Over the whole 2020, 811,000 new homes were sold, up 18.8 percent from 2019.