The number of homes under construction rose during the month, as homebuilders continued to work through a large backlog of homes. 

The largest single-week decline in conventional mortgage rates since July brought the first increase in home-loan applications since September, the Mortgage Bankers Association said. 

Looking ahead, CoreLogic expects national year-over-year appreciation to slow to 3.9% by September 2023. 

September is the fourth month in a row to see declining sales activity. 

A 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 7.08% this week from 6.94% a week ago, Freddie Mac reported. A year ago, the average mortgage carried a 3.14% rate. 

Mortgage rates continued to weigh on homebuyers in September, following a brief uptick in new-home sales in August.  

At the same time, mortgage applications declined 1.7% on a seasonally adjusted basis on a week-over-week basis, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. 

In Phoenix, home prices posted a 17.1% year-over-year gain in August, compared to a 22.4% gain in July. Month over month, prices fell 2.1.

Month over month in September, existing-home sales slid 1.5% to 4.71 million, which is 23.8% lower than the year before. 

New home construction missed analyst estimates in September, falling 8.1% month over month to an annual rate 1,439,000 homes, according to government statistics. 

Looking ahead, CoreLogic expects the year-over-year pace of home-price appreciation to slow to 3.5% by August 2023. 

The average median home size varies drastically across the country, according to American Home Shield’s 2022 American Home Size Index.

Sales of new homes in the U.S. jumped 28.8% between July and August, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.  

The median existing-home price for all housing types in August was $389,500, a 7.7% rise from the year before. 

New-home construction posted a 12.2% month-over-month increase in August, thanks in large part to a significant jump in multifamily building.  

A continuing combination of increased interest rates, supply-chain disruptions and high home prices has sapped homebuilder sentiment every month this year.