Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, including how the bond market reacts to the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions. That can move the trajectory of the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

Sales of previously owned homes fell 2.5% from the prior month, as a recent drop in mortgage rates failed to offset home prices that remain near record highs.

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes declined in August to the slowest annual pace in nearly a year even as mortgage rates eased and the supply of properties on the market kept rising. The National Association of Realtors said Sept.