Economy

April home sales drop 18%, as inventory decline pushes prices to record high


A For Sale sign is seen in front of a home in Miami, Florida.

Joe Raedle | Getty Images

The economic fallout from the coronavirus hit the housing market hard in April.

Sales of existing homes fell 17.8% month-to-month, and were 17.2% lower than April 2019, seasonally adjusted, according to the National Association of Realtors. That puts the annualized pace at 4.33 million units, the slowest sales pace since September 2011. 

These numbers are based on closed sales, not signed contracts, so they represent contracts signed in late February and March. The April drop in closings is the largest one-month decline since July 2010, when the homebuyer tax credit, a federal stimulus resulting from the subprime mortgage crash, expired. 

“Certainly with the lock-down occurring from mid-March, and given the shakiness from the stock market in February, that hurt pending contracts, so now we are seeing an almost 20% decline in existing homes sales,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors. “April activity will be down, but what we are hearing from Realtors is they are getting busy as governors are opening the economy.”

The supply of homes for sale fell 19.7% annually to 1.47 million units for sale at the end of April. That is the lowest April inventory figure ever. Not only did potential sellers decide not to list their homes, as job losses mounted and the economy shut down, but some sellers already on the market pulled their listings. 

That drop in inventory pushed prices to a new record high. The median price of an existing home sold in April rose 7.4% annually to $286,800. That record does not account for inflation, but is a nominal record-high.

Mortgage rates did not help buyers, as they not only jumped, but were highly erratic in March, and lending tightened dramatically due to coronavirus mortgage forbearance programs that allow homeowners to delay payments. That made it even harder for those few buyers out in the market to get the financing they may have needed. 

Home selling largely went online in April, with the few buyers still in the market doing most of their shopping through virtual tours and live showings with real estate agents over tablets or smart phones. Some agents report selling to buyers who never actually entered the homes. 

The numbers in April also showed a new trend away from condominiums. Single-family home sales dropped 16.9% for the month, but condo sales fell a much wider 26.4%.

“This could be a short-term shock from the use of common rooms or elevators in condos, or it could be a long-term trend of people wanting to buy away from the cities and in the suburbs,” added Yun.

Signs are already pointing to a remarkable recovery in housing. Mortgage applications to purchase a home were down just 1.5% last week compared with the same week one year ago, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Just six weeks ago, those applications were down 35% annually. 

“The key question is whether sellers will return to the market so  buyers  have options to choose from,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at realtor.com. “Confidence surveys show that many believe it is not a good time to sell, and our weekly data shows fewer sellers putting homes on the market than a year ago.”



Source link

Share on Facebook
Tweet
Follow us
Tagged 18, April, decline, drop, High, , inventory, prices, pushes, record, sales