New Home Sales Climb 8% in June : Economy: Lower rates and builder incentives are bringing out the buyers, analysts say.

New home sales jumped 8% in June for the second consecutive monthly gain after a winter and early spring of steady declines, the government said today.

Lower mortgage rates and builder incentives appeared to attract buyers back to the struggling market.

“We were really holding our breath,” said David Seiders, chief economist at the National Assn. of Home Builders. “There was some feeling the single-family market was in a free fall.”

In May, new home sales advanced 2.3% after plunging 5.7% in April, according to the report by the Commerce Department and Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The June increase, to an annual rate of 581,000 new homes, was much better than expected by private analysts and the best showing since November, 1989, when the rate stood at 687,000 new homes.

Richard Peach, deputy chief economist at the Mortgage Bankers Assn., said lower interest rates appear to be attracting “all those people who were sitting on the fence in March, April and May.”

Added John Tuccillo, chief economist at the National Assn. of Realtors: “The jump in new home sales in June reflects buyer response to falling mortgage rates.”

The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., or Freddie Mac, reported rates on 30-year fixed mortgages dipped to 9.98% last week from 9.99% for the previous week.

But the government also said the median price of a new home in June was $129,900, an increase of $2,000 over May, and the average price stood at $152,900, up from $149,700 in May.