According to the National Association of Manufacturers’ (NAM) Monday Economic Report for this week, existing home sales fell 2.2% from 4.16 million units at the annual rate in June to 4.07 million units in July, the lowest since January. With higher mortgage rates, homeowners are less willing to sell their existing homes, limiting inventories for sale. Single-family sales declined 1.9% from 3.72 million units to 3.65 million units, and condominium and co-op sales fell 4.5% from 440,000 units to 420,000 units. Existing home sales have plummeted 16.6% YoY from 4.88 million units in July 2022. There were 3.3 months of unsold inventory of existing homes for sale on the market in July, up from 2.6 months in February and March. The median sales price was $406,700 in July, up 1.9% from one year ago.

According to final data from the University of Michigan and Thomson Reuters, the Index of Consumer Sentiment declined from 71.6 in July to 69.5 in August and lower than the earlier estimate of 71.2. Consumers felt less positive in their assessments of both current and future economic conditions.