The market turns its attention today to a report on new-home sales for November.

Across the nation, new-home sales are down by more than 20 percent from their peak last year.

In a separate report, new-home sales for the month fell 9.7 percent.

For the first seven months of the year, new-home sales were 3 percent lower than in the comparable 1987 period.

For the first five months of the year, new-home sales were down 7.1 percent from the comparable period in 1988.

New-home sales fell 1.6 percent in April, the department said.

For all of 1999, new-home sales rose 2 percent, to a record 904,000.

But the current 710,000 annual rate for new-home sales is higher than can be sustained.

New-home sales for the first nine months were down 4.5 percent from the comparable period in 1988.

It also said new-home sales rose 0.6 percent, to an annual rate of 898,000 houses.