Home sales have slowed considerably in central Pennsylvania as mortgage interest rates that are much higher than a year ago eat into housing affordability. 

It’s getting a little more expensive to buy a house in Pennsylvania, depending on what you compare it to. 

Higher interest rates and limited inventory continue to factor in the cooling of the housing market in Pennsylvania, like many other areas of the country.

As residential real estate activity cools in the region, the jump in home prices has slowed as well, though they’re still well above last year’s figures. 

Across the country, existing-home sales in June fell for the fifth consecutive month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.12 million, the National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday.

Home prices in central Pennsylvania kept climbing in March as a large majority of listings continued to draw multiple offers. 

The median home price in Pennsylvania dipped slightly during the month of February. 

Through the first two months of 2022, home sales in York and Adams counties are the same as a year ago, while prices keep climbing. 

Harrisburg-area home sales fell slightly in January from the year before, but that’s not because demand is waning. 

Lancaster County home sales in 2021 finished 7.3% ahead of the previous year, as prices continued to surge. 

In news that’s no surprise to anyone in the real estate industry, home sales in York and Adams counties broke records in 2021. 

After peaking in June, home prices in Pennsylvania dropped in October, but are still higher than they were one year ago. 

Despite a slowdown as the holidays near, home sales in York and Adams counties remain ahead of last year’s pace through the first 10 months of 2021. 

September home sales in Lancaster County were down 4.6% from the year before but the market remains strong. 

September settlements totaled 783 in Cumberland, Dauphin and Perry counties, 10 fewer than a year ago. Last month’s figure is also 10.3% less than the 877 houses sold in August 2021.  By Paula Wolf, Contributing Writer