May home sales increase very slightly, but prices hit new record

According to the National Real Estate Association, the sales of previously owned houses increased by 0.8% from April to 0.8%, seasonally adjusted, rose to 4.03 million units annually.

Housing analysts envisaged a 1% decrease. Sales were 0.7% lower than May last year.

Sales are the most powerful in the northeast, with an increase of 4.2% to the moon. They also rose in the Middle West and South, but fell by 5.4%in the west. According to Nar, the West is the most expensive region of the country.

This number is based on closing, so contracts are probably signed in March and April. The average ratio on the 30 -year fixed mortgage was fixed in March, but in April it was more than 7% higher.

“Relatively suppressed sales are largely due to high mortgage rates. Low interest rates will attract more buyers and sellers to the housing market.” He said. “If the mortgage rates are reduced in the second half of this year, wait for the increase in home sales throughout the country due to a strong increase in income, healthy inventory and a record number of work.”

A big jump in the supply of households for sale was probably behind the small earnings in sales since April. At the end of May, there was an increase of 20% from May last year and 1.54 million units. At the current sales rate, this still represents a 4.6 -month supply, which is still historically on the light side.

That’s why there’s still pressure on prices. The average price of an existing house sold in May is $ 422,800 with an annual increase of 1.3%. This is a record high for May.

Demand is still strong for supply; As a result, 28% of the houses increased from 18% of last month, but fell slightly from 30% in May 2024.

Sales were stronger at the top of the market because there is more supply, but a year ago, it fell into a $ 1 million range. Nar said that the single price range they rise is around 750,000 to 1 million dollars, which has seen a relatively small increase of 1%.

Yun, “the upper -end market does not make any difference compared to other price points. For the last 20 months we have seen better than the upper end, but no longer like this,” said Yun, the tariffs for the first time in April, the stock market volatility may have an impact.

It takes longer to sell houses a year ago. Only 30% of the buyers fell from 31% last year, and 27% of all transactions were an increase compared to the previous year.