Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes declined in August to their slowest annual pace in more than a year as home shoppers grappled with rising mortgage rates and home prices.
Existing home sales fell 2% last month from July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.98 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. This is the third straight monthly decline.
Sales also fell 1.2% compared with August last year. The latest sales tally is just shy of the 4 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet.
"It's not a surprise home sales and mortgage rates move in the opposite direction and we have seen mortgage rates rising, rising, rising from February," said Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist.
Home sales have been mostly hovering close to a 4-million annual pace going back to 2023, far short of the historic norm that is closer to 5.2-million. The last time the annual sales pace came in below 4 million was June 2025.