NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sales of newly built U.S. single-family homes unexpectedly rose at their fastest pace in 10 months in February, while prices fell by a record margin from a year ago, a government report showed on Wednesday.
KEY POINTS: * The Commerce Department said sales rose 4.7 percent to a 337,000 annual pace, the fastest increase since April last year, from an upwardly revised 322,000 in January. * Despite the increase, February sales were the second lowest ever after the drop in January to the slowest pace in records going back to 1963, the department said. * Economists polled by Reuters had forecast sales at a 300,000 rate in February.
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