India, Sept. 24 -- A report released by the Commerce Department on Thursday unexpectedly showed another significant increase in new home sales in the U.S. in the month of August.

The Commerce Department said new home sales jumped by 4.8 percent to an annual rate of 1.011 million in August after skyrocketing by 14.7 percent to an upwardly revised rate of 965,000 in July.

Economists had expected new home sales to pull back by 1.2 percent to a rate of 890,000 from the 901,000 originally reported for the previous month.

With the unexpected increase, new home sales surged up to their highest level since reaching 1.016 million in September of 2006.

New home sales in the South spiked by 13.4 percent to an annual rate of 636,000, while new ho...