Existing home sales fall to their lowest level in almost three years, as homebuyers retreat

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Numbers: Existing home sales reached a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.15 million euros in September, the National Association of Realtors announced on Friday. This was a 3.4% drop for the month and the lowest sales pace since November 2015.

What happened: Sales of homes owned by older homes stabilized in August after falling for four consecutive months. The decline recorded in September has surprised some. Sales were 4.1% lower than the previous year. In September, the pace of sales failed to match MarketWatch's consensus forecast of $ 5.27 million.

The median selling price in September was $ 258,100, up 4.2% from the previous year. Housing prices continue to grow faster than wages, but the pace of price increases is decelerating steadily.

This is probably because stocks are increasing gradually. At the current pace of sales, it would take 4.4 months to exhaust the available supply, compared to 4.3 months last month. And it takes more time for properties to get caught: houses remained on the market for 32 days in September, against 29 in August.

Lily: Housing price increases slow to their lowest level in 11 months, as the housing market attempts to land softly

Big picture: Real estate agents have blamed another stagnant month of the housing market on rising mortgage rates, rising prices and the stranglehold on supply. But it is also likely that many potential buyers are abandoning a market that has become too competitive, expensive and unsatisfactory, especially as conditions in the rental market are improving. The national median rent has decreased compared to last year in September, Zillow

ZG, -2.30%

said Thursday. This is the first annual decline since 2012 and reflects an overabundance of supply, with more to come.

What they say: "The recent sluggishness seems to be increasingly driven by the slowdown in demand from potential buyers facing two emerging trends: lower rents and higher mortgage rates," said Zillow's chief economist, Aaron Terrazas. "All of this adds to a situation in which supply-side factors are becoming less and less important for home sales as they are giving way to falling demand. There is still a lot of energy in the housing market, but the rapid increase in recent years has clearly begun to stabilize. "

NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun now expects that existing home sales will be 1.6% lower in 2018 than last year. The economists of mortgage financier Fannie Mae are even more bearish: they expect a decline of 2%.

Market reaction: The Dow Jones Industrial Average

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changed little after the release of the report and gained about 2.7% for the year.

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