Unlike sales of new single-family homes, which rose in May, sales of existing homes in the U.S. fell last month. Sales of existing homes, a category that includes single-family homes, townhouses, condominiums and co-ops, fell 1.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.67 million units in May, the Chicago-based National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported on June 27.
"There's now a clear pattern of slower home-sales activity in many higher cost markets, which are more sensitive to rises in interest rates, and higher home sales in moderately priced areas which have experienced job growth," says David Lereah, NAR's chief economist. "Although mortgage interest rates remain historically low, the uptrend in interest rates this year is affecting those buyers who are the margins of affordability."
