New homes sales rose last month to the highest level in more than a year. The Commerce Department said Wednesday that sales last month rose 6.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 430,000 from an upwardly revised 405,000 in September.

It was the sixth time that the sales of new homes had risen in the past seven months.

The median sales price of new houses sold in October was $212,200, up from $204,800 in September.

The average sales price was $261,100.

There were 239,000 new homes for sale at the end of October, the lowest inventory level in nearly four decades.

Regionally, in the South sales increased 23 percent. Sales dropped about 5 percent in the West and Northeast, and in the Midwest by 20 percent.