LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes slowed in September to the weakest annual pace in nearly 14 years even as mortgage rates eased and the supply of properties on the market continued to climb.
Existing home sales fell 1% last month, from August, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.84 million, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday. That marks the second straight monthly decline and the slowest annual sales pace since October 2010 when the housing market was still in a deep slump following the late-2000s real estate crash.
Sales fell 3.5% compared with September last year. On a regional basis, sales fell in the Northeast, South and Midwest last month from a year earlier, but rose in the West.
Overall, the latest home sales were short of the 3.9 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet.
“The factors that would drive higher home sales —- such as mortgage rates meaningfully lower now compared to one year ago, inventory beginning to increase and, of course, jobs continuously being added to the economy —- and yet home sales are stuck at low levels,” said Lawrence Yun, the NAR’s chief economist.
Despite the slower sales pace, home prices increased on an annual basis for the 15th consecutive month. The national median sales price rose 3% from a year earlier, to $404,500.
While the rate of price growth has been slowing, the latest median sales price is 49%…
