NEW YORK (AP) — Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes edged higher in May, as stubbornly high mortgage rates and rising prices made homebuying less affordable even as the inventory of properties on the market continued to increase.
Existing home sales rose 0.8% last month from April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.03 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Monday. Still, the sales pace was the slowest for the month of May going back to 2009, when the market was still reeling from a housing crash. April and March’s sales pace were also the slowest for those months going back to 2009.
Sales fell 0.7% compared with May last year. The latest home sales fell topped the 3.95 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet.
Home prices increased on an annual basis for the 23rd consecutive month, although the rate of growth continued to slow. The national median sales price rose 1.3% in May from a year earlier to $422,800. That’s an all-time high for the month of May, but represents the slowest annual price growth since June 2023.
“The relatively subdued sales are largely due to persistently high mortgage rates,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “Lower interest rates will attract more buyers and sellers to the housing market.”