Market for newly built homes slows as elevated mortgage rates put off many home shoppers WSOC TV [Video]

LOS ANGELES — (AP) — Homebuilders who bucked the worst of last year’s housing slump may be seeing their luck run out.

After showing signs of strengthening early this year, sales of new U.S. homes fell in April and May from a year earlier by 7.7% and 16.5%, respectively.

Last month’s sales skidded to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 619,000 units, the slowest pace since November, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Wednesday.

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage has mostly hovered around 7% this year, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac. The elevated rates have discouraged many home shoppers. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes, which make up by far the largest swath of the housing market, fell in May for the third month in a row.

The recent slowdown in new home sales marks a shift from last year, when sales rose nationally for the first time in two years, climbing 4.2% from a …