US home resales barely rise as key selling season begins

SALES of previously owned US homes barely rose in April from a nine-month low, underscoring a sluggish housing market at the start of the spring-selling season. 

Contract closings edged up 0.2 per cent to a 4.02 million annualised rate, according to National Association of Realtors data out on Monday. That was slightly slower than the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

Despite the modest improvement in April, the housing market remains challenged by elevated mortgage rates and asking prices. Even with more moderate growth over the past year, buyers are still paying record prices. 

Moreover, elevated energy costs tied to the Iran war are beginning to strain household budgets.

The NAR report showed the median selling price rose 0.9 per cent from a year earlier to US$417,700 — a record for the month. The inventory of previously owned homes increased from a year ago to 1.47 million — the most for any April since 2019.

“Even though it’s the highest inventory post-Covid, we are not close to the pre-Covid April inventory of 1.83 million,” Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said on a call with reporters.

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Contract closings rose in the Mid-west and South, according to the NAR. They fell to a three-month low in the West.

First-time buyers represented 33 per cent of purchasers, down slightly from a year ago.

While the NAR’s affordability index — which measures whether a family has enough income to qualify for a loan on a typical home — has improved from last year’s lows, it has declined in the past two months. BLOOMBERG