sales of previously owned homes fell 04 in august from july to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 480 million units according to the national association of realtors that is the slowest sales pace since june 2020 when activity stalled very briefly due to the start of the pandemic outside of that it is the slowest pace since november 2015 sales were 199 lower than in august 2021 the sales figures represent closings so contracts that were likely signed in june and july when mortgage rates spiked higher and then pulled back the average rate on the popular 30year fixed mortgage began june at around 55 and then shot up over 6 by the middle of the month according to mortgage news daily it then pulled back a bit hanging in the 57 range for most of july before dropping further to the low 5 range at the end of the month the 30year fixed started this year at 3 it is now close to 65 even with interest rates making housing even less affordable prices were still higher than a year ago the median price of an existing home sold in august was 389500 up 77 from a year ago home prices historically drop from july to august due to seasonality but the drop this year was wider than usual suggesting a significant softening from june through august prices usually decline about 2 but this year they have fallen about 6 the housing market is showing an immediate impact from the changes in monetary policy said lawrence yun chief economist for the realtors noting that he will revise his annual sales pace down further due to higher mortgage rates some markets may be seeing price declines sales fell in all price categories but more sharply on the lower end sales of homes priced between 250000 and 500000 were down 14 year over year while sales of those priced between 750000 and 1 million were down just 3 much of that has to do with supply which is leanest on the lower end of the market prices are still being bolstered by tight supply there were 128 million homes for sale at the end of august unchanged from a year at the current sales pace that represents a 32month supply in july we saw the first sign that the housing markets refresh may affect homeowners eagerness to sell and that hesitation continued in august as the number of newlylisted homes sank by 13 said danielle hale chief economist for realtorcom homebuilders have been pulling back in the face of falling demand but there was a small bump in singlefamily housing starts in august according to the us census that may have been due to a brief drop in mortgage rates during which sparked more interest from buyers but building permits which are an indicator of future construction fell as mortgage rates were expected to rise again