US home sales fell in March in tepid homebuying season start
April 20, 2023 | Alex Veiga | AP News
The spring homebuying season in the U.S. is off to a tepid start as buyers contend with sharply higher mortgage rates and near historic-low inventory of properties on the market.
Existing U.S. home sales fell 2.4% last month from February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.44 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. That’s below the 4.5 million home sales economists were expecting, according to FactSet.
Sales slumped 22% compared with March last year. The annual drop was steepest in markets across the Western part of the country, where sales sank more than 30% from a year ago.
The national median home price slipped 0.9% from March last year to $375,700, the NAR said. That’s the biggest annual median home price drop since January 2012.
While the drop in prices is good news for buyers after years of soaring home values, a stubbornly low inventory of properties for sale continues to drive bidding wars in many markets, especially for the most affordable homes.
