Existing US home sales fell in August, price growth slowed

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell in August and the pace of price growth eased, the latest sign the housing market is cooling as intense competition leave many would-be buyers on the sidelines

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell in August and prices that have been soaring eased, the latest sign the housing market is cooling as intense competition leaves many would-be buyers on the sidelines.

Existing homes sales fell 2% last month from July to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 5.88 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday. That’s slightly more than the 5.87 million economists were expecting, according to FactSet.

Sales fell 1.5% from August last year, though they remain above where they were in February 2020, before the pandemic.

Still, home sales are running 16% higher through the first eight months of this year than in the same stretch of 2020, before a surge in sales as the market bounced back from a slowdown in the initial months of the pandemic. Sales are also up about 12% from where they were in the first eight months of 2019."