Housing market continues slowdown with fifth straight month of declining sales

Existing home sales continued to decline for the fifth straight month in June, dropping over five percent from the month before and a whopping 14 percent year-over-year. 

Sales in June "declined for the fifth straight month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.12 million," the National Association of Realtors said in a press release on Wednesday. Sales "were down 5.4% from May and 14.2% from one year ago."

That decline occurred alongside a notable price increase in homes throughout the country, with "the median existing-home sales price [climbing] 13.4% from one year ago to $416,000, a new record high," NAR said. 

The drop comes after roughly two years of white hot housing markets throughout the country, as sharply constricted supply and skyrocketing demand saw buyers paying any price to get into the scant number of homes available nationwide. 

Recent federal reserve rate hikes, done in order to tame runaway inflation, have scared many buyers away from the market. NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in the press release that spiking house prices are driving the current slump in purchases. 

"Falling housing affordability continues to take a toll on potential home buyers," he said. "Both mortgage rates and home prices have risen too sharply in a short span of time."