"Uptick" isn't the word for the latest increase in new home sales; "surge" is more like it. The U.S. Department of Commerce reported on Wednesday that sales rose 9.6 percent from June to July, to an annual pace of 433,000. It's the fourth month in a row that new home sales have increased, though the July 2009 pace was still 13.4 percent lower than that of July 2008.