Financial News: U.S. Existing Home Sales Tumble To Nine-Month Low

U.S. Existing Home Sales Tumble To Nine-Month Low In March

(RTTNews) - Existing home sales in the U.S. pulled back by much more than expected in the month of March, according to a report released by the National Association of Realtors on Monday.

NAR said existing home sales tumbled by 3.6 percent to an annual rate of 3.98 million in March after surging by 2.7 percent to an upwardly revised rate of 4.13 million in February.

Economists had expected existing home sales to dip by 0.2 percent to an annual rate of 4.08 million from the 4.09 million originally reported for the previous month.

With the much bigger than expected decrease, existing home sales dropped to their lowest level since hitting a matching annual rate of June 2025.

"March home sales remained sluggish and below last year's pace," said NAR Chief Economist Dr. Lawrence Yun. "Lower consumer confidence and softer job growth continue to hold back buyers."

The sharp pullback by existing home sales partly reflected weakness in the Northeast, where existing home sales plummeted by 8.5 percent.

Existing home sales in the Midwest also plunged by 4.2 percent, while existing home sales in the West tumbled by 4.2 percent and existing home sales in the South slumped by 1.3 percent.

The report also said housing inventory at the end of March totaled 1.36 million units, up 3.0 percent from 1.32 million units in February and up 2.3 percent from 1.33 million units a year ago.

The unsold inventory represents 4.1 months of supply at the current sales pace, up from 3.8 months in February and 4.0 months in the same month last year.

NAR also said the median existing home price was $408,800 in March, up 2.7 percent from $398,000 in February and up 1.4 percent from $403,100 a year ago.

"Because inventory remains limited, the median home price rose to a new record high for the month of March," Yun said. "That price growth has helped the typical homeowner accumulate $128,100 in housing wealth over the past six years."

Meanwhile, NAR said it downwardly revised its forecast for existing home sales growth this year to 4 percent due to the upward trajectory of mortgage rates.

New home sales are now expected to remain flat, a downward revision from the prior forecast of a 5 percent gain, NAR added.

"Mortgage rates have been rising, and that has led us to trim our home sales outlook for the year," said Yun. "Even with a more modest pace of sales growth, home prices continue to steadily increase due to minimal inventory growth."

On Wednesday, the National Association of Home Builders is scheduled to release a separate report on homebuilder confidence in April. The housing market index is expected to edge down to 37 in April after inching up to 38 in March.

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