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Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes were essentially flat in April,\u00a0another lackluster showing\u00a0for the housing market during what\u2019s traditionally its busiest time of the year.<\/p>\n
Existing home sales edged up 0.2% last month from March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.02 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Monday. Sales were unchanged compared to April last year.<\/p>\n
The latest sales figure fell short of the roughly 4.12 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet.<\/p>\n
Sales have been hovering close to a 4-million annual pace now going back to 2023, far short of the historic norm that is closer to 5.2-million.<\/p>\n
And home prices continued to rise nationally last month, albeit at a slower rate. The U.S. median sales price increased 0.9% in April from a year earlier to $417,700, an all-time high for any April on data going back to 1999, NAR said. Home prices have risen on an annual basis for 34 months in a row.<\/p>\n
The U.S. housing market has been in a slump since 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes were essentially flat last year, stuck at\u00a0a 30-year low.\u00a0They have remained sluggish so far this year, declining from a year earlier through the first three months of this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis spring homebuying season, so far all the way through April, we can say we are not predicting any increase compared to one year ago,\u201d said Lawrence Yun, NAR\u2019s chief economist.<\/p>\n
Homes purchased last month likely went under contract in February and March, when the average rate on a 30-year mortgage ranged from 5.98% \u2014 its lowest level in three and a half years \u2014 to 6.38%, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac. The average rate was at\u00a06.37% last week.<\/p>\n
While the average rate has remained below where it was a year ago, it has been fluctuating since the\u00a0war with Iran\u00a0began, as surging energy prices fuel anxiety about higher inflation.<\/p>\n
Those who can afford to buy are benefiting from more properties on the market, although home inventory levels remain well below historical norms.<\/p>\n
There were 1.47 million unsold homes at the end of April, up 5.8% from March and up 1.4% from April last year, NAR said. That\u2019s the most homes on the market for the month of April going back to 2019, when the month-end inventory stood at 1.83 million homes.<\/p>\n
Even so, that\u2019s still short of the roughly 2 million homes for sale that was typical before the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
April\u2019s month-end inventory translates to a 4.4-month supply at the current sales pace. Traditionally, a 5- to 6-month supply is considered a balanced market between buyers and sellers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really need to see 30% growth in inventory, but we\u2019re not really seeing that,\u201d Yun said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#American #housing #market #brokenand #years #starting #permanent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes were essentially flat in April,\u00a0another lackluster showing\u00a0for the housing market during what\u2019s traditionally its busiest time of the year. Existing home sales edged up… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[890,4570,1898,3662,4568,176,33,4569,2563,4571,156,84],"class_list":["post-2619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-american","tag-brokenand","tag-housing","tag-housing-costs","tag-housing-inventory","tag-inflation","tag-market","tag-mortgage-rates","tag-mortgages","tag-permanent","tag-starting","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}