WASHINGTON — Purchases of new U.S. homes jumped in January to the highest level since July 2008, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

New-home sales rose 15.6 percent in January from December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 437,000. The percentage increase was the largest in nearly 20 years. And December’s sales were revised higher to 378,000 from 369,000.

“The housing recovery will continue at a fairly strong pace,” said Aneta Markowska, chief U.S. economist at financial-services company Societe Generale in New York. “Affordability is extremely high. Some improvement in income and employment is also supporting demand.”

In Arkansas, home sales fell 6.2 percent in December in the 42 counties surveyed by the Arkansas Realtors Association. The association on Tuesday released a report on sales and average prices for homes in November and December, the most recent figures available. Statistics for January have not been released.

There were 1,674 homes sold in Arkansas in December, down from 1,785 sold in December 2011.

For the year, home sales in Arkansas fell 1.1 percent compared with 2011, the association said. There were 24,081 homes sold last year in the 42 counties, which include the largest markets in the state, down from 24,352 in 2011.

November and December home sales in the state were anticlimactic, said Michael Pakko, chief economist at the Institute for Economic Advancement at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

With the peak sales months normally in the summer, it was apparent 2012 was not going to have a significant increase from 2011, Pakko said.

“November and December sales were essentially flat, which contributed to the trend we already saw,” Pakko said.

Because of low mortgage rates and an apparent bottoming in home prices, Pakko said, he is “cautiously optimistic” about home sales this year.

Home prices in Arkansas were up 9 percent in December compared with December 2011. The average price of a home in December was $161,074. For the year, the average price of homes sold was $155,549, up 9.1 percent from the 2011 average price.

In November, home sales in the state rose 6.6 percent compared with sales November 2011, the association said.

Steady job creation and near-record-low mortgage rates are spurring more Americans to buy houses. Sales of previously owned homes rose to the highest level in five years last year.

At the same time, the number of previously owned homes for sale is at a 13-year low. That shortage creates demand for new houses. Builders began construction on the most houses and apartmentsin four years last year.

The supply of new homes for sale was unchanged last month at 150,000. That’s barely above August’s total of 143,000 - the smallest supply of new homes on records dating back to 1963.

At the current sales pace, it would take just 4.1 months to exhaust the number of new homes for sale, the lowest in eight years.

Low inventories should encourage more construction.

Though new homes represent less than 20 percent of the housing sales market, they have an outsize effect on the economy. Each home built creates an average of three jobs for a year and generates about $90,000 in tax revenue, according to data from the National Association of Homebuilders.

The increase in home building has spurred construction hiring. The industry has gained 98,000 jobs since September, the best stretch since the spring of 2006.

Still, the increases in newhome sales are coming from depressed levels. Sales plummeted to a record low in 2011. And sales are still well below the 700,000 annual level that economists consider healthy.

The biggest gain in newhome sales was in the West, where they soared 45.3 percent.

The supply of previously owned homes in that region has fallen sharply. Sales jumped 27.6 percent in the Northeast, 11.1 percent in the Midwest but only 3.2 percent in the South.

A separate report Tuesday showed that home prices nationally accelerated in December. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index rose 6.8 percent in December compared to the same month a year ago. That’s up from November’s 5.5 percent gain over the previous November.

Rising home prices can fuel the housing recovery by encouraging people to buy before prices increase further. They can also bring more sellers off the sidelines.

Information for this article was contributed by Christopher S. Rugaber of The Associated Press; by David Smith of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; and by Shobhana Chandra of Bloomberg News.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/27/2013