Industry News

Existing home sales shrink, price appreciation grows

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Existing home sales around the country continued to slide in April, falling to the lowest level since June 2020. Analysts at the National Association of Home Builders attributed the decline to rising mortgage rates and higher home prices, stating that combination is pricing out first-time and young buyers.

Citing data from the National Association of Realtors®, NAHB noted year-over-year sales were down 5.9%. Single family homes, townhomes, condominiums, and co-ops were included in the statistics.

First-time buyers comprise a shrinking share of homebuyers, accounting for 28% in April. That’s down from the previous month (30%) and 12 months ago (31%).

All-cash sales dropped from a month ago but rose slightly from a year ago. They accounted for 26% of April’s transactions, down 2% from March, but up from the year-ago figure of 25%.

Inventory totals were mixed. April’s tally rose from 0.93 million in March to 1.03 million units, but it was down from the year-ago figure of 1.15 million units. That amounts to about 2.2 months of supply, which NAHB believes is “ongoing good news for home construction.”

Nearly nine of every 10 homes (88%) sold during April were on the market for less than a month, averaging just 17 days, the same as March and a year ago.

Prices continued to escalate, jumping 14.8% from twelve months ago. The April median sales price of all existing homes was $391,200. That marked the 122nd consecutive month of year-over-year increases for a record-setting streak. For existing condos/co-ops, the median price for April’s transactions was $340,000, up 13.1% from a year earlier.

The West notched the steepest drop in the volume of existing sales compared to March, at 5.8%. Sales in the South dipped 4.6% while both the Northwest and Midwest experienced gains of 1.5% and 3.1% respectively. Compared to a year ago, all four regions had fewer sales with the declines ranging from 1.5% in the Midwest to 10.7% in the Northwest.

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