The Pace of home sales at California new-home communities was extraordinarily slow in October, primarily due to the global credit crisis, according to a recent California Building Industry Association report.

The monthly CBIA/Hanley Wood Market Intelligence (HWMI) New Home Sales and Pricing Report showed that new home sales in October were 63 percent below October 2007. Compared with the same period last year, the median base price of homes sold dropped by 9 percent, according to the report.

Non-seasonally adjusted total new home sales were 29 percent lower in October compared with September. While it is not unusual for new-home sales to show a slower pace of sales activity in October than in September due to normal seasonality trends, the drop this year was unusually large compared to the 9 percent drop for the same period a year ago.