By Arlenys Tabare
According to the latest data published by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), Sales of existing homes had a slight increase of 0.2% during the month of April given the dizzying rise in mortgage rates in recent weeks, driven by the economic uncertainty caused by the war in Iran.
Analysts expected an increase of more than 3% for this latest report as it was the period of greatest market activity; however, the data remained unchanged compared to last year.
In the analysis, NAR presented that Existing home sales reached a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 4.02 million unitsmaintaining the same annual rate since 2023 and below its historical level of 5.2 million.
However, Lawrence Yun, chief economist at NAR, in the report commented that despite the mixed macroeconomic signals, “home sales were slightly buoyed by continued improvement in housing affordability,” he said. In April, the highest home price reached $417,700, an increase of 0.9% over the previous year.
Although the economist did not rule out that currently the market needs a 30% growth in inventory. During the month of April, inventory only increased 5.8% compared to March. “Multiple offers, although not as intense as a few years ago, continue to occur. At the same time, the average time that products remain on the market is lengthening, which implies that consumers take their time before making decisions,” he commented.
According to the NAR report, last month, despite the fact that 33% of sales were by first-time buyersthere was a drop compared to last year.
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