A Double Dose of Healthy News : Economy: Reports on home sales and leading indicators show the national recovery is likely to continue well into 1994.

The government’s chief gauge of future economic strength rose a healthy 0.5% last month and home sales nationwide hit a record high, according to reports released Wednesday, seemingly assuring that the recovery will continue well into next year.

New orders for expensive manufacturing equipment and fewer first-time claims for unemployment benefits helped push the closely watched index of leading indicators higher for the fourth month in a row in November, the Commerce Department said.

In a separate report, the National Assn. of Realtors said home sales bucked the traditional year-end slowdown last month. Sales climbed 2.9% to a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.21 million units for the year--the fastest sales pace since the trade group began keeping figures in 1968.

“If anybody thought that the new year was going to start off on shaky ground, I think their doubts have been blown out of the water,” said Sung Won Sohn, chief economist of financial services giant Norwest Corp. in Minneapolis. “The recovery is right on track, and we should see solid growth at least through the first six months of ’94.”

Some analysts had been worrying that the economy has recently been growing too fast, sparking fears that the recovery would run out of gas in the first half of next year.

But the 0.5% rise in November’s leading indicators--an index designed to forecast economic strength six to nine months from now--is a sign that the economy probably will continue to grow at a modest pace well into next spring.

In all, eight of the 11 economic indicators that the Commerce Department uses to compile the index rose last month. Orders for new business and manufacturing equipment jumped, new claims for jobless benefits dropped and permits for new construction projects climbed. The length of the average workweek also grew longer.

Analysts said longer workweeks and the growing backlog of orders for merchandise bode well for the unemployment picture, because businesses finally may be forced to hire new employees instead of squeezing more work out of their existing staffs.

“Sooner or later--and I think it will be sooner--more employers are going to have to start hiring, because they just can’t get by with the skeletal staffs they have now,” Sohn said.

The realtors’ report on home sales surprised many housing analysts, who had been expecting sales to drop as the holidays approached.

“Mortgage rates began to creep up a little in the fall, and I think that convinced a lot of people to quit procrastinating and finally buy a home,” explained John Tuccillo, chief economist of the National Assn. of Realtors.

Last week, the California Assn. of Realtors said sales in the state climbed 2.7% in November and were up 6% from a year ago.

Although most analysts cheered Wednesday’s reports, some worried that federal regulators still might nudge up short-term interest rates sometime soon to keep the economy from overheating. Consumers with adjustable-rate credit cards likely would feel the pain first, because their payments would rise almost immediately.

“Then you’d see rates on most new auto loans climb, because they react a little more slowly,” said Cynthia Latta, an economist for analysts DRI/McGraw Hill in Boston.

But Latta said she does not expect the Federal Reserve Board to raise rates until at least March.

Many home buyers already are feeling the pinch caused by the rebounding housing market. A construction boom in most parts of the nation has sent lumber prices soaring more than 50% over the past few months, adding more than $4,000 to the cost of building a typical house. And builders in stronger housing markets have reacted by hiking their sales prices.

But new home buyers in Southern California have so far gotten a reprieve, as Southland developers hold the line to reduce their inventory.