Sales of New Homes Fall 9%

WASHINGTON — New home sales fell 9% in January, pushing sales activity to its slowest pace since the end of the last recession, the Commerce Department said today, as the housing industry continued to stagger following the October stock market collapse.

In a second lackluster economic report, the department also announced that orders for manufactured goods fell 0.6% in January to a seasonally adjusted $212.6 billion.