WASHINGTON -- U.S. sales of new single-family homes declined in November to the slowest pace in three months without straying off track to make 2000 the second-best year on record, according to a U.S. Department of Commerce report.

The 2.2% decline in November sales to an annual rate of 909,000 units followed a 1.1% drop the month before. Even so, declining mortgage rates helped push November sales up 1.6% from the pace set a year earlier. And while the November sales pace was the slowest since 860,000 in August, it is up from the 895,000-unit rate in November 1999.

November 2000 sales fell 20% in the Northeast to a 68,000-unit pace, dropped 7.6% in the Midwest to a pace of 133,000, and decreased 3.3% in the West to a 261,000-unit pace. Sales in the South were higher, rising 3.5% to an annual rate of 446,000 houses.