TAMPA, Fla. — Existing-home sales continued to decline for the tenth month in a row in November, according to new data from the National Association of Realtors.

The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that existing home sales fell 7.7% last month from October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.09 million. That’s lower than what economists were expecting, according to FactSet. Sales plunged 35.4% from November last year.

At the same time, sales are falling, and home prices are moving in the opposite direction. In November, the national media home sales price rose 3.5% year-over-year to $370,700.

“In essence, the residential real estate market was frozen in November, resembling the sales activity seen during the COVID-19 economic lockdowns in 2020,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun.

The drop in home sales has been driven by a rapid increase in mortgage rates as the Federal Reserve raised interest rates throughout the year and plans to continue to do so in 2023 until inflation comes down to a more nominal level.

That, combined with housing affordability issues and reduced incentives for homeowners to list their homes, all contributed to the rapid loss in home sales, the National Association of Realtors said.

In Tampa, the median listing price for homes in November was $415,000, more than 8 percent higher than in November 2021. New listings in the Tampa market dropped 3.1% in November 2022, the National Association of Realtors said.

New homebuyers made up just 28% of sales in November, which was the same rate as in October. For the year, the National Association of Realtors said the annual share of first-time buyers was just 26%, the lowest since the realtor group began tracking the data.