Home sales were down 4.8 percent in August, to 5.31 million from 5.58 million in July, Realtor.com reports.
The trend is true for the Northwest and Northeast, which have steadily held or gained for months. This was despite what the NAR says is a slowing price growth and a rise in sales to first-time buyers.
“While analysts had expected a 2% decline, this was worse than expected and likely impacted in part by the stock market declines in August,” said the chief economist of Realtor.com, Jonathan Smoke.
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