With inventory low and rates rising, home sales fall

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of previously occupied homes fell in December for the first time in four months as mortgage rates ticked higher and would-be buyers struggled to find properties with the number of properties on the market at record-lows. Existing home sales fell 4.6% last month from November, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of nearly 6.2 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. Even with the decline, December’s figures closed out a healthy year for home sales. Annual sales reached 6.1 million homes last year, the Realtors said, up 8.5% from 2020 and the most since 2006, the height of the housing bubble that crashed the following year.