WASHINGTON (AFP) — Sales of new US homes plunged to a 17-year low in March despite hefty home price declines in response to a glut of unsold homes, Commerce Department figures showed Thursday.

Last month’s new home sales fell 8.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 526,000 units, well below analysts’ consensus forecast for a rate of 580,000.

The March sales pace was the weakest since October 1991 and 36.6 percent below the March 2007 estimate of 830,000.

The median sales price of new houses sold in March was down 13.3 percent year-over-year at 227,600 dollars.

That represents the largest 12-month decline since 1970, and leaves median home prices at their lowest point since September 2006.

The average sales price of a new home was 292,200 dollars, down 11.3 percent over the last year, a new record 12-month decline.

Builders cut 1.1 percent off the actual number of unsold homes to 468,000, but with the slowing sales rate they were left with an 11-month supply, the largest inventory overhang since an 11.3-month supply in September 1981.

“Excess supply remains significant, suggesting that the downward adjustment will continue in the months ahead,” said Marie-Pierre Ripert, analyst at Natixis.

Ripert added that median prices are “likely to remain on their downward trend.”

Commerce also revised January and February sales down by a net 9,000. Commerce initially reported a 590,000 annual rate of sales in February, but reduced that to 575,000.

Sales of new homes in March fell in all regions of the country. The Northeast was hardest hit, with sales plummeting 19.4 percent to their lowest level since 1981. Sales in the Northeast have fallen a record 64.6 percent over the last 12 months.

Sales fell 12.9 percent in the West and 12.5 percent in the Midwest, pushing sales down to levels not seen since 1991. In the South, sales dropped 4.6 percent to their lowest level since 1996.