Dive Brief:

• New home sales plummeted 11.5% between August and September, reaching a seasonally adjusted rate of 468,000, the Commerce Department reported Monday.

• The results failed to meet analyst predictions, as economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected new home sales to reach 555,000. September's rate was only 2% higher than during September 2014.

• The median sales price of new homes in September was $296,900, up from $292,700 in August. The month's supply of new homes came in at 5.8 months, a significant rise from the 4.7-month supply in August.

Dive Insight:

Despite the seemingly serious drop in September's new home sales results, the statistic is often volatile and revised the following month. New homes also account for only about 10% of the total market. Still, the preliminary figures are disappointing, and might signal that "a segment of the housing market could be cooling," The Wall Street Journal reported.

Factoring in last month's decline in sales, the year-to-date rate of new home sales, not seasonally adjusted, is 17.6% higher than during the same time period in 2014.

Economists have attributed the drop in new home sales to "muted" wage gains, which hinder some potential buyers from saving up for a down payment.

The Commerce Department's report was disappointing after a string of positive housing reports last week, which found that September housing starts surged 6.5%, existing home sales rose 4.7%, and builder confidence rose 3 points to its highest level since October 2005. The final September housing report, pending home sales, will be released Thursday.