Receding 23.2% from one year ago, total existing-home sales, or completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums, and co-ops, fell 3.4% in April to a seasonally adjust rate of 4.28 million, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). All four major U.S. regions saw month-over-month and year-over-year sales declines.
“Home sales are bouncing back and forth but remain above recent cyclical lows,” says NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun. “The combination of job gains, limited inventory, and fluctuating mortgage rates over the last several months have created an environment of push-pull housing demand.”
At the end of April, the total housing inventory was up at 1.04 million units, a 7.2% increase from March and a 1% increase from one year ago. The unsold inventory sits at a 2.9-month supply at the current sales pace, up from 2.6 months in March and 2.2 months in April 2022.
In April, the median existing-home price for all housing types was $388,800, a decline of 1.7% from April 2022 ($395,500). While prices retreated in the South and West, they increased in the Northeast and Midwest.
“Roughly half of the country is experiencing price gains,” Yun notes. “Even in markets with lower prices, primarily the expensive West region, multiple-offer situations have returned in the spring buying season following the calmer winter market. Distressed and forced property sales are virtually nonexistent.”
Down from 29 days in March but up from 17 days a year ago, properties typically remained on the market for 22 days in April, with 73% of homes sold on the market for less than a month.
First-time buyers made up 29% of sales in April, up from 28% in both March 2023 and April 2022. All-cash sales accounted for 28% of transactions in April, up from 27% in March and 26% a year ago.
Down 3.5% from 3.99 million in March and 22.4% from the previous year, single-family home sales decreased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.85 million in April. The median existing single-family home price was $393,300 in April, a drop of 2.1% from the prior year.
Existing condominium and co-op sales posted at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 430,000 units in April, down 2.3% from March and 29.5% from one year ago, with the median existing condo price at $348,000, an annual increase of 0.7%.
In the Northeast, existing-home sales fell 1.9% from March to an annual rate of 510,000 in April, down 23.9% from April 2022. Up 2.8% from the previous year, the median price in the Northeast was $422,700.
Midwest existing-home sales declined 1.9% from March to an annual rate of 1.02 million in April, dropping 21.5% from last year. The median price was $287,300, up 1.8% from last year.
Existing-home sales in the South dropped 3.4% from March to an annual rate of 1.98 million in April, a 20.2% decline from one year ago. The median price in the South was $357,900, down 0.6% from one year ago.
Down 31.3% from the previous year, the West’s existing-home sales fell 6.1% from the previous month to an annual rate of 770,000 in April. The median price was $578,200 in the West, down 8% from April 2022.
