Home sales in the United States fell quite a bit in August, dropping 4.8 percent, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The numbers come from the National Association of Realtors, who track data in home buying and selling all over the United States. Their figures show that home sales fell to 5.31 million in August, the sharpest monthly decline in home buying since last January. The biggest drop in home sales can be found in the southern and western states of the U.S. This is a direct correlation to rising real estate costs in both places, WSJ reported.
The median price for homes in August was down to $228,700 nationally, another drop from the previous month of July. The numbers seem grim, but they're actually not as scary as they seem. Despite the dip in sales for August, overall home sales for the month are still up from August 2014, according to Daily Finance.
However, the dip is significant in that it's unexpected. Some financial analysts have been caught by surprise by this sharp drop in home sales. The sagging numbers are below economist predictions for the month of August, according to Yahoo! News, which could be a bad sign for the overall economy.
