US home sales fall for the 3rd straight month in May amid rising mortgage rates, record-high prices
Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell in May for the third straight month as rising mortgage rates and record-high prices discouraged many prospective homebuyers during what’s traditionally the housing market’s busiest period of the year
LOS ANGELES — Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell in May for the third straight month as rising mortgage rates and record-high prices discouraged many prospective homebuyers during what's traditionally the housing market’s busiest period of the year.
Existing home sales fell 0.7% last month from April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.11 million, the National Association of Realtors said Friday.
Sales also fell 2.8% compared with May last year. The latest sales still came in slightly higher than the 4.07 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet.
“I thought that we would actually see a recovery this spring —- we are not seeing it,” said Lawrence Yun, the NAR’s chief economist.
Despite the pullback in sales, home prices climbed compared with a year earlier for the 11th month in a row. The national median sales price rose 5.8% from a year earlier to $419,300, an all-time high on records going back to 1999. It's also up 51% from five years ago.
Home prices rose even as sales slowed and the supply of properties on the market hit its highest level in 4 years.
“It’s somewhat of a strange phenomena,” Yun said. “We had low home sales activity, prices are hitting record highs and homes look like they’re still getting multiple offers.”
The U.S. housing market has been mired in a slump going back to 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. Existing home sales sank to a nearly 30-year low last year as the average rate on a 30-year
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