Across the nation, sales of new single-family homes in October were down 0.3 percentage points below September sales. The sale of 368,000 new homes, however, marked a 17.2 percent increase over October 2011.

The median sales price of new houses sold in October 2012 was $237,700; the average sales price was $278,900.

The estimate of new houses for sale at the end of October was 147,000 units, representing a 4.8 month supply at the current sales rate. By contrast, the numbers of existing homes for sale in the Santa Clarita Valley have reached a record low inventory supply of only 1.2 months — driving sales up of existing homes.