U.S. new-home gross sales decreased 2% to an annual fee of 772,000 in February, the federal government stated Wednesday. That determine represents the variety of properties that will be offered over a yearlong time period if the identical variety of properties had been purchased every month primarily based on the speed of gross sales in February. In comparison with a 12 months earlier, gross sales had been down greater than 6%. Economists polled by MarketWatch anticipated new-home gross sales in February to drop to an annual fee of 805,000.