Home sales declined in November.
It was the third consecutive month of falling sales, suggesting that higher mortgage rates are putting the brakes on the housing recovery.
The report from the National Association of Realtors showed that sales of previously-owned homes slipped 1.2% to an annual rate of 4.9 million homes sold.
Besides mortgage rates, which have been rising steadily since hitting a record low in the spring, tight supplies of homes for sale and continued tight credit are factors slowing sales, according to Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the trade group.
“There is a pent-up demand, but the bottleneck is in limited housing supply, due to the slow recovery in new home construction,” he said.
