Summary Box: New home sales unchanged in August, annual sales pace second slowest on record

Summary Box: New home sales at second slowest pace

NEW HOME SALES WEAK: New homes sold at the second-slowest pace on record in August, signaling that the housing market will remain a drag on the economy.

SALES UNCHANGED: Sales were unchanged from a month earlier at a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 288,000 and were down by 29 percent from the same month a year earlier.

MAY SALES WORSE: The only time new home sales were slower was in May, when the sales pace was 282,000, the worst on records dating back to 1963.