US existing home sales fall 1.7% in July

US existing home sales fell 1.7 percent in July as high mortgage rates and concern about further rate increases weighed on buying, National Association of Realtors data showed Tuesday.

Sales of previously owned homes dropped month on month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.06 million, the NAR said. Average 30-year mortgage rates rose through July and reached 6.66 percent by the end of the month, their highest level since a year earlier.

NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said home sales had been “remarkably stable” despite rising mortgage rates in recent months. He said year-to-date sales were up 2.4 percent and that the housing market would be stronger if average mortgage rates returned near six percent.

Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, said sales were “stalling” because the 30-year mortgage rate was back around 6.7 percent. She said sellers were cutting prices and offering incentives, and said the falloff was especially noticeable for single-family homes, where she put the median price at $440,300 and inventory at its highest level in more than a year.

The July annualized sales rate was close to the 4.0 million expected by economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

The median sales price across all housing types was $434,100 in July, up two percent from a year earlier, NAR data showed. The NAR said that marked more than three years of continuous year-on-year price increases.

Yun said regional results varied in July. Sales rose month on month in the Northeast, were steady in the West and declined in the Midwest and South.