LOS ANGELES — Sales of previously occupied homes rose in February as easing mortgage rates and more properties on the market encouraged home shoppers.

Existing home sales rose 4.2% last month from January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.26 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.

Sales fell 1.2% compared with February last year, ending a string of five consecutive annual increases. The latest home sales topped the 3.92 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet. On an unadjusted basis, sales fell 5.2% from February last year, when the month included an extra day because 2024 was a leap year.

The national median sales price rose 3.8% in February from a year earlier to $398,400, an all-time high for the month of February. All told, the U.S. median home sales price is up 47% over the last five years.

“Homebuyers are slowly entering the market,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “Mortgage rates have not changed much, but more inventory and choices are releasing pent-up housing demand.”

The U.S. housing sales began to slump in 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell last year to their lowest level in nearly 30 years.

While the average rate on a 30-year mortgage briefly fell to a 2-year low in September, it rose to just above 7% by mid-January and fell to an average of 6.76% by the last week of February. The rate averaged 6.67% Thursday, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac. That’s more than double the 2.65% record low that the average rate reached a little over four years ago.