August home sales falter after 4 months of gains

A four-month streak of improvements in existing-home sales gave way to a seasonally adjusted 2.7 percent decline in August, according to the National Association of Realtors, as prospective buyers of condos and single-family homes pulled back across the Northeast, the South, and the Midwest.

Economists said it was too soon to say whether the drop represented a hiccup in the market, or a sign of deeper problems.

Despite the monthly decline, sales in August were still 3.4 percent higher than a year earlier, when the collapse of the housing market was rapidly dragging down the economy.

And they marked the second-highest sales figures of the year.

“I’m not alarmed by the softening in sales,’’ said Celia Chen, a housing economist at Moody’s Economy.com. “The trend is still very strongly up.’’

Home sales have been edging higher over the last few months as lower prices, affordable mortgage rates, and a tax credit for first-time home buyers have drawn buyers back to open houses.

The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 5.04 percent last week, down from 6.09 percent a year ago, the mortgage underwriter Freddie Mac reported yesterday.

Housing and real estate groups like the National Association of Realtors have called on Congress to extend or expand the tax credit for first-time buyers, saying that sales could slide back once it expires at the end of November.

While the program has helped to drive sales higher this summer, some economists say its effects are waning because most interested buyers have already taken advantage of the $8,000 credit.

The realtor group estimated that 30 to 40 percent of all buyers were first-time homeowners.

In August, median home prices across the country dipped by nearly $4,000, to $177,700, and were down 12.5 percent from a year earlier, and inventories of for-sale homes dropped to a supply that would take 8.5 months to burn through, the lowest levels all year.