Chicago's NAR says US existing home sales slump as house prices race to record

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On Friday, the US National Association of Realtor (NAR) had issued a statement saying that the US existing home sales had faltered for the third straight month in a row in April, as an inevitable lag in supplies appears to have predicated a strong groundwork to drive property prices to a record high amid a multi-year low long term mortgage rates on an average.

In point of fact, latest decline in US existing home sales, which bode well for sales of single-family new houses, came forth as a number of pandemic-wary Americans sought shelters in the suburbs and countryside during the peak of pandemic last year in a bid to avoid the densely populated US cities.

US house prices race to record; mortgage rates dip

Alongside this, according to US National Association of Realtor’s data released late earlier on Friday, existing home sales were slumped as much as 2.7 per cent to a seasonally adjusted 5.85 million units last month on an annualized basis, while existing home sales had witnessed steeper downturns in the Northeast, West and Southern part of the United States.

However, on a year-on-year basis, US existing home sales soared 33.9 per cent in April amid multi-year low long-term mortgage rates. Nevertheless, over the narratives of a steep supply shortage on US housing market, the median existing house prices spiked 19.1 per cent to an all-time high of $341.600 in April on a year-on-year basis, said the National Association of Realtors.

According to US mortgage buyer Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed rate home loans were at 3.150 per cent this week, down from a 3.30 per cent in April, while 20-year fixed mortgage loans fell to 3.070 per cent from a 3.220 per cent clocked in April.

15-year fixed rate home loans were hovering at 2.430 per cent, down from a 2.630 per cent a month earlier.