Sales of pre-owned US homes slowed in September to the weakest annual pace in nearly 14 years mortgage rates ease And the supply of properties in the market continued to increase.
Existing home sales fell 1% last month, since August, The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday the seasonally adjusted annual rate stood at 3.84 million. This is the slowest annual sales pace since October 2010, when the housing market was still in deep recession following the real estate crash of the late 2000s.
Sales fell 3.5% compared to September last year. According to FactSet, the latest home sales were 3.9 million below the pace economists were expecting.
Despite the slowing pace of sales, home prices rose on an annual basis for the 15th consecutive month. The national average sales price rose 3% from a year earlier to $404,500.
“Home sales have essentially been stuck at a roughly four-million-unit pace over the past 12 months, but the factors typically associated with higher home sales are evolving,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at NAR.
As sales have slowed, the inventory of homes for sale has been increasing. NAR said there were 1.39 million unsold homes at the end of September, up 1.5% from August and 23% from September last year.
This implies a supply of 4.3 months at the current sales pace, up from a pace of 3.4 months at the end of September last year. Traditionally, a 5 to 6 month supply is considered to be a balanced market between buyers and sellers.
The US housing market has been sales in recession That’s 2022, when mortgage rates begin climbing above pandemic-era lows. Existing home sales fell to a nearly 30-year low last year, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac, as the average rate on a 30-year mortgage hit a 23-year high of nearly 8%.
Mortgage rates have declined mostly since July His lowest average in two years – 6.08% – four weeks ago, they have been higher since then. the average rate was at 6.44% Last week.
