Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell in September for the eighth month in a row, matching the pre-pandemic sales pace from 10 years ago, as house hunters faced sharply higher mortgage rates, higher home prices and a still tight supply of properties on the market.

The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that existing home sales fell 1.5% last month from August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.71 million. That’s slightly higher than what economists were expecting, according to FactSet.

Sales fell 23.8% from September last year, and are now at the slowest annual pace since September 2012, excluding the steep slowdown in sales that occurred in May 2020 near the start of the pandemic.

The national median home price rose 8.4% in September from a year earlier to $384,800.

The housing market has been slowing as average long-term U.S. mortgage rates have doubled from a year ago, making homes less affordable.

(AP)