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Home Prices See Largest Annual Decline in More Than a Decade

May 26, 2023

Existing home sales fell in April from the month prior, and prices from a year earlier saw their biggest decline in more than 11 years.

Sales of previously owned homes, which account for the majority of the housing market, fell 3.4% in April from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.28 million, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). On a year-over-year basis, sales fell 23.2%. Sales of existing homes have declined for 14 of the last 15 months and have fallen roughly one-third since the beginning of the year.

The national median price for an existing home fell 1.7% in April from a year earlier, the biggest annual decline since January 2012, the NAR said. Median home prices, which are not seasonally adjusted, have fallen 6% from a record of $413,800 in June of last year to $388,800 in April.

This time of year is generally the busiest season for home buying, as families with children want to move between school years, but limited inventories and higher mortgage rates have put a damper on the spring season.

Nationally, there were 1.04 million homes for sale or under contract at the end of April, an increase of 7.2% from March and 1% from April 2022, NAR said. At the current sales pace, there was a 2.9-month supply of homes on the market at the end of April. The number of homes for sale is up from a year ago, but that is because houses are sitting on the market longer. The number of new listings in April fell 21% from a year earlier, according to Realtor.com.

 

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