In August 2026, U.S. home sales declined to their slowest annual pace in over a year, with existing home sales falling 2% from July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.98 million units. This marks the third consecutive monthly decline and a 1.2% drop compared to the previous year. Rising mortgage rates, which reached 6.71%, and increasing home prices, now at a median of $429,100, have contributed to the slowdown in the housing market.
We’ll perform a deep-dive analysis of all sources and publicly available external materials, then prepare a structured timeline of events, an in-depth report explaining the background and context, and multiple perspectives.