April Home Prices Hit Highest Point

Mortgage rates sidelined buyers once again in April.

Existing home sales fell 1.9 percent last month — both month-to-month and year-over-year — according to a report from the National Association of Realtors. The seasonally adjusted annual rate of existing home sales in April was 4.14 million.

Mortgage rates likely played a role in the sales drop, according to NerdWallet home and mortgage expert Holden Lewis.

“People are eager to buy homes, but a lot of potential buyers are waiting for mortgage rates to fall below 7 percent,” Lewis said in a statement.

The median sale price of existing homes in April rose 5.7 percent year-over-year to $407,600, — the highest price ever recorded by NAR for the month, with all four regions reporting price gains.

The upper end of the market experienced a transaction gain due to increasing supply, NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun noted, but for the overall market, “the pace of price increases should taper off since more housing inventory is becoming available.”

All-cash buyers maintained a healthy portion of the market, accounting for 28 percent of purchases last month and matching its share from March and April 2023.

All four regions NAR tracked recorded month-to-month drops in home sales, but not all experienced annual declines. In the West, sales fell 2.6 percent from the previous month, but increased 1.3 percent from the previous year.

Sales in the South fell 1.6 percent and 3.1 percent on a monthly and yearly basis, respectively. In the Northeast, sales fell by 4 percent on both a monthly and yearly basis, while the Midwest experienced 1 percent sales drops on a monthly and yearly basis.

For-sale inventory at the end of last month was 1.21 million homes, rising 9 percent from March and 16.3 percent year-over-year. Unsold inventory amounted to a 3.5-month supply at last month’s sales pace, up from both March and April 2023.