US existing home sales fall to lowest in over a year

Sales of previously owned homes in the United States fell in August to their lowest level in more than a year, as high mortgage rates continued to weigh on buyers.

Existing home sales dropped 2.0 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.98 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. The group said the last time the rate was below 4.0 million was in June 2025. Briefing.com had forecast a higher figure of 4.03 million.

NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said mortgage rates and home sales tend to move in opposite directions, and linked the dip in buying activity to high mortgage rates. He said home prices remained higher than a year earlier.

The median price of existing US homes was $429,100 in August across housing types, up 1.6 percent from a year earlier, NAR data showed. That was lower than July's level.

Freddie Mac said the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.67 percent in August, compared with 6.54 percent in July. Data released Thursday afternoon showed the average rate had continued climbing in September, reaching 6.76 percent, the highest since June 2025.

Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, said affordability remained a major concern because home prices, mortgage rates, property taxes and insurance were all higher than a few years ago. She said Americans were pausing homebuying and that borrowing costs were still rising.