US home prices fall by most in 11 years but sales are down

US home sales fell in April for the second month in a row and home prices had the biggest drop since 2012, according to a National Association of Realtors report released Thursday.

Sales had shown some life, rising in February after a full year of declines due to surging mortgage rates, but that momentum has since cooled.

In April, sales of existing homes — which include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops — dropped 3.4% from March. Annually, sales were down 23% from a year ago and the seasonally adjusted annualized sales pace dropped from 5.57 million units a year ago to 4.28 million in April.

April’s falling sales showed that February’s reversal — which ended the longest streak of month-to-month declining home sales on record, going back to 1999 for all homes — did not take off. Mortgage rates were rising in February and pushing toward 7% in March when many of these April closings went into contract.