US home sales slipped, prices grew more slowly in August

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes slowed in August for the seventh month in a row, as sharply higher mortgage rates and rising home prices made homebuying less affordable.

The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that existing home sales fell 0.4% last month from July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.80 million. That’s higher than what economists were expecting, according to FactSet.

Sales fell 19.9% from August last year, and are now at the slowest annual pace since May 2020, near the start of the pandemic.

The national median home price jumped 7.7% in August from a year earlier to $389,500.