Breaking News Today 5/19/22
Existing home sales slide for third straight month.
Housing activity tumbled for the third straight month in April, as soaring borrowing costs weighed on would-be buyers.
Existing home sales fell to a seasonally adjusted 5.61 million units in April from a month earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). That was down 2.4% from March and 5.9% from one year ago. The results came under analysts’ expectations of 5.64 million units, according to Bloomberg consensus estimates.
The figures underscore the tough conditions buyers face: low inventory, rising prices, and higher mortgage rates.
“Higher home prices and sharply higher mortgage rates have reduced buyer activity,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “It looks like more declines are imminent in the upcoming months, and we’ll likely return to the pre-pandemic home sales activity after the remarkable surge over the past two years.