US Existing Home Sales Resume Slide In March; Home Prices Drop Most In A Decade

After February’s massive surge in existing home sales, expectations were for a modest pullback in March. The 14.,5% jump in Feb was revised down to 13.8% surge (still huge), but March printed a 2.4% MoM decline (worse than the expected 1.8% drop).

source: Bloomberg

That is the 13th monthly decline in the last 14 months and leaves existing home sales down around 22% YoY with the SAAR dropping back to 4.44mm…

source: Bloomberg

The median selling price of a previously owned home fell 0.9% from a year earlier to $375,700 in March – the largest decline since January 2012.

Homes priced between $250,000 and $500,000 made up nearly half of the month’s transactions, while those above $750,000 comprised a much smaller share.

“Home sales are trying to recover and are highly sensitive to changes in mortgage rates,” Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said in a statement.

“At the same time, multiple offers on starter homes are quite common, implying more supply is needed to fully satisfy demand.”

The number of homes for sale edged up to 980,000 last month, but still indicative of a lack of inventory.

That’s leading to multiple offers on especially entry-level homes, Yun said.

Some 28% of homes sold during the month went above list price, Yun added.

About 5% were classified as vacation-home sales, down from 7% a year ago.

Sales dropped in all regions but the Northeast, which was unchanged from February.

First-time buyers made up 28% of purchases in March, still historically low. Yun said a “normal” share is closer to 40%

Mortgage rates have since soared back above 7.00%…

…oh and the banking system collapse means lending standards will have tightened dramatically since.

So, don’t expect this sales surge to continue.