NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — tNew-home sales fell once again in August, the fourth straight month of declining sales for the beleaguered home building market.

New homes sold at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 295,000 last month, a 2.3% drop from a revised rate of 302,000 homes sold in July, the Census Bureau said Monday.

522PrintCommentThat was better than the rate of 293,000 that economists were expecting, according to a consensus estimate from Briefing.com.

Even as sales were weak in August, they were still 6.1% above the same time last year, when new-home sales were at an annual rate of 278,000.

“The trend in recent months has been dead flat, with sales hovering around the 300,000 mark, down more than 80% from the boom-time peak,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at High Frequency Economics, in a research note.

Obama’s housing scorecard
Shepherdson was actually “moderately relieved at this number,” given that Hurricane Irene hit during the month, and consumers watched rating agency Standard & Poor’s downgrade the credit rating of the United States following a Congressional stalemate over the debt ceiling.

“Still, the market is dead, and even record low mortgage rates are not doing anything to help,” said Shepherdson.

Interest rates are at rock-bottom lows. Mortgage rates are tied to the yields of Treasury notes, and investors anxious about the European debt crisis have been pouring into the safe haven of government debt