Existing-home sales, after four months of gains, slipped in August, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Existing-home sales decreased 1.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.05 million, down from 5.14 million in July. While sales are at the second-highest pace of the year, they are still 5.3 percent below the levels seen in August 2013.
NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said that the drop occurred as investors paying in cash retreated from the market. Still, first-time buyers have a "better chance of purchasing a home now that bidding wars are receding and supply constraints have significantly eased in many parts of the country," he said in a statement.
Yun added, “As long as solid job growth continues, wages should eventually pick up to steadily improve purchasing power and help fully release the pent-up demand for buying.”
A gradual decline in investor activity is actually good for the market, said NAR President Steve Brown, because it creates more opportunity for buyers who rely on financing to purchase a home.
