April 2024 Existing-Home Sales
Existing-home sales slip again, modestly
slipped 1.9% in April, bringing the sales pace to 4.14 million homes from an upwardly revised March pace of 4.22 million sales. This pace was also down 1.9% compared with one year ago, signaling the ongoing headwinds that buyers and sellers face.
While the nationwide housing market remains in seller-friendly territory, rising for-sale inventory is slowly nudging the market in a more buyer-friendly direction as months supply hit 3.5 months, up from 3.0 months one year ago and 3.2 months in March.
Home prices rise, reflecting market shifts
The median sales price rose 5.7% from one year ago, to $407,600, a new April high mark, even though listing prices have flattened.
Price gains reflect more robust sales activity among higher-priced homes, and listing price trends suggest that moderation could be ahead.
First-time buyers persist despite rate volatility
Mortgage rates tumbled from late October through mid-January and held through early February at some of the lowest rates since May 2023. By mid-February, however, a pickup in inflation reset expectations and put mortgage rates back on an upward trend. There were ups and downs in mortgage rates throughout March, before another inflation-driven midmonth surge in April.
More recent inflation data showed a reversal of this trend and has driven some mortgage rate relief, but buyers who closed on homes in April, and likely locked mortgage rates in March, faced a fair amount of mortgage rate uncertainty and generally higher rates. These conditions were likely a drag on overall home sales. Nevertheless, first-time buyers continue to find opportunities and accounted for 33% of sales in April, up from 32% in March and 29% in April 2023.
What this data means
As inflation improves and mortgage rates drift lower, as is widely expected, home purchasers will benefit, but the improvement will be unevenly distributed for buyers of different incomes levels and in different markets.
In joint research, Realtor.com庐 and the National Association of Big gaming庐 found that markets where affordability is currently low鈥� such as Spokane-Spokane Valley, WA; Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL; and Salt Lake City, UT鈥攁re some of the areas where affordability will see the biggest boost, while currently affordable markets like Pittsburgh, PA,听补苍诲 Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI,聽are expected to see smaller affordability improvements.