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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Sales of new homes highest in five years

From Wire Reports

WASHINGTON – Americans snapped up new homes in June at the fastest pace in five years, a sign the housing recovery is strengthening.

The Commerce Department says sales rose 8.3 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted pace of 497,000. That’s up from 459,000 in May, which was revised lower.

While sales are still below the 700,000 pace consistent with healthy markets, they have risen 38 percent in the past 12 months. That’s the biggest annual gain since January 1992.

Housing has helped drive economic growth at a time when other parts of the economy have languished. While new-home sales make up only a small part of the market, each home built creates an average of three new jobs and spurs more spending at furniture and home supply stores.

Gas well incident poses less of a risk

NEW ORLEANS – Environmental experts say a fiery, out-of-control gas well blazing off the Louisiana coast appears to pose fewer environmental dangers than past offshore accidents because it primarily involves natural gas.

They note that gas burns away or is more easily dissipated than the thick crude oil that famously oozed into delicate marshes and coated seabirds following an explosion at BP’s Macondo well in 2010.

The fire that raged Wednesday broke out late Tuesday, hours after the well blew wild and forced the evacuation of 44 workers from a drilling rig operating about 55 miles off the Louisiana coast. Wild Well Control Inc. has been hired to develop a plan to bring the well under control, a process that could involve drilling a relief well to divert the gas.