Sluggish start for spring homebuying season as home sales fall in March with mortgage rates rising
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The spring homebuying season is off to a sluggish start as home shoppers contend with elevated mortgage rates and rising prices.
Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell 4.3% in March from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.19 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. That’s the first monthly decline in sales since December and follows a nearly 10% monthly sales jump in February.
Existing home sales also fell 3.7% compared with March last year. The latest sales still came in slightly higher than the 4.16 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet.
A modest pullback in mortgage rates early this year helped lift home sales in January and February, but rates mostly ticked up in February and March, when many of the home sales that were finalized last month would have taken place.
Related articles
What a blast to work at NASA. Space agency is sky
WASHINGTON (AP) — Exploring the cosmos makes for happy employees, federal workers like to work from2024-05-21- Hannah Guttierez-Reed, the primary weapons handler on the set of the ill-fated indie film Rust, was2024-05-21
Regular passenger flights between Taiyuan, Hong Kong to resume
Regular passenger flights between Taiyuan, capital of north China's Shanxi Province, and the Hon2024-05-21How major US stock indexes fared Monday, 4/15/2024
U.S. stocks slumped after higher yields in the bond market cranked up the pressure on Wall Street. T2024-05-21Yvette Fielding says her Most Haunted co
Yvette Fielding claims her Most Haunted co-star Derek Acorah was a fake who tried to grope and kiss2024-05-21Donald Trump brings his campaign to the courthouse as his criminal hush money trial begins
NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump began his day as a criminal defendant lashing out at t2024-05-21
atest comment