Helping improve demand was a drop in new-home prices, with the average falling to $150,400, from $154,200 in April.

The government compiles national averages of new-home prices, but it is hard to determine what they mean, because regional differences are huge.

The latest data reinforced other recent measures of the housing market, like home construction, new-home prices and mortgage applications.

The National Association of Realtors forecast this week that new-home prices in 2006 will show an annual decline for the first time since 1991.

The high end of the market is reaching ever more lofty terrain, with new-home prices as high as $5 million, Mr. Darrow said.

Those would-be buyers bring their starting salaries and often modest savings into a metropolitan-area housing market with an average new-home price of $167,000, according to current figures.

An economic boom is jolting the county, driving up new-home prices and shrinking the pool of low-cost housing.

The median new-home price fell by 3.7 percent, to $118,800.

Weston has become popular with Venezuelans seeking second homes, while in Miramar and Pembroke Pines, new-home prices have recently topped $1 million.

Since 1964, new-home prices have risen an average of 6 percent a year, according to the Commerce Department.