THE ECONOMY : Going Up: ‘Sold’ Signs

* The indicator: The Commerce Department’s report on sales of new houses for September.

* What they did: Sales of new units nationwide rose 2.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 703,000 units from a revised rate of 685,000 in August. High mortgage rates failed to depress demand as analysts had predicted. Total sales in July were up 1.1% after a 9.2% drop in June.

* What it means: With mortgage rates averaging 8.68% and rising, some analysts had predicted that September sales would suffer from would-be first-time home buyers being priced out of the market. The impact of high loan rates was apparently offset by income gains and additional jobs in the overall economy.

* Highlights: So far this year, sales are 5.1% ahead of the first nine months of 1993. For all of last year, sales totaled 666,000. An estimated 326,000 new residences were on the market in September, the most since November, 1990. In the Western states alone, sales fell 2.8% in September to an annual rate of 209,000.

New Homes Sales

Seasonally adjusted annual rate, in thousands of units:

Sept. 1994: 703

Source: Commerce Department