Existing home sales slide again in April amid inventory woes, high prices

U.S. existing home sales continued to slide in April as limited inventory and high prices cooled consumer demand.

Sales of previously owned homes tumbled 3.4% in April from the prior month to an annual rate of 4.28 million units, according to new data released Thursday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). On an annual basis, existing home sales are down 23.2% when compared with April 2022. 

"Home sales are bouncing back and forth but remain above recent cyclical lows," said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist. "The combination of job gains, limited inventory and fluctuating mortgage rates over the last several months have created an environment of push-pull housing demand."

There were about 1.04 million homes for sale at the end of April, according to the report, an increase of 7.2% from March and up just 1% from one year ago.