WASHINGTON– Sales of new homes fell more than expected in April in the United States, a month marked by a rise in interest rates on real estate loans.
Some 634,000 new homes found buyers in April in the annual projection (the figure projected 12 months from now if the conditions at the time of measurement are maintained), according to data published Thursday by the Department of Commerce.
It’s a sharp decline on the 665,000 sales registered a month before, always in an annual projection.
It is also a figure much lower than projected by the market, which expected 680,000 operations, according to the consensus gathered by Briefing.com.
The decrease is 7.7%
The April fall is 4.7% compared to March and 7,7% compared to the same month in 2023says the report.
“The data can be volatile from month to month. But the drop is more significant than expected,” HFE chief economist Rubeela Farooqi highlighted in a note.
“Las high rates and high prices continue to have a great impact on access” to housing, he indicated.
Prices of new homes remain high, with a median (the figure that leaves half of the properties ahead and behind) at $433,500 in April compared to $430,700 in March.
Meanwhile, the average price fell slightly, from $524,800 in March to $505,700 in April.
Mortgage loan rates rose in April, reaching above 7% for a 30-year fixed-rate loan, the most popular, according to data from mortgage refinancing agency Freddie Mac.
According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), Americans spend an average of 38% of their income paying off a home loan if they buy at the median price.
Sales of existing homes continue to plummet
Home resales fell again in the United States in April, except in the high-end segment, which recorded a strong increase, while prices continued to rise.
Last month, 4.14 million homes changed hands in an annual projection (the projected total within 12 months of maintaining conditions at the time of measurement), according to data published Wednesday by the National Federation of Realtors (NAR).
The number of home sales has fallen and is the worst in more than a decade.
This is a decrease of 1.9% compared to March and a similar drop compared to April 2023.
Analysts were expecting a rebound after a sales decline in March, to 4.21 million resales, according to a consensus compiled by Market Watch.
Source: With information from AFP.
