Spring Home Sales Off to Surprisingly Weak Start

Homebuyers appear to willing to wait it out on the sidelines even longer: The latest numbers reveal an unexpectedly slow start to the season amid high prices and mortgage rates. The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that existing home sales in March fell 5.9% from February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.02 million units, reports the AP. That's below economists' expectations of 4.12 million, according to FactSet. It's also the biggest monthly decline in more than two years, notes the Wall Street Journal. Sales were down 2.4% compared to March last year.

"Even with more inventory, existing-home sales are struggling to get traction," says Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist. "I was hoping that we would begin to see some meaningful recovery this year. Well, so far, it's not happening." Spring is typically the most robust season for home sales, and the numbers suggest that a broad housing turnaround is not imminent, per the Journal.

The supply of unsold homes rose to 1.33 million at the end of March, an 8.1% increase from February. That equates to a 4-month supply at the current sales pace, higher than the 3.2-month supply at the end of March last year. A 5- to 6-month supply is considered a balanced market between buyers and sellers. The national median sales price for existing homes rose 2.7% in March from a year earlier, reaching $403,700, an all-time high for the month. (This content was created with the help of AI. Read our AI policy.)