US home sales lowered more than expected in March — dropping to their slowest pace since 2009 as panicked buyers bail, new data out today shows.
Sales of existing homes slid 5.9 percent last month from February to an annual rate of 4.02 million, seasonally adjusted, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said Thursday.
The figures come as a recent report warned that five metro areas — three in Florida and two in Arizona — are at huge risk of a housing market crash in 2025.
Meanwhile, separate analysis highlighted the areas where prices are already falling, with four in Texas setting alarm bells ringing of a crash there.
This was significantly below a 4.2 million rate expected in a Briefing.com consensus estimate, and marked the biggest month-to-month drop drop since November 2022, the association said on a call.
‘Home buying and selling remained sluggish in March due to the affordability challenges associated with high mortgage rates,’ said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun in a statement.
The popular 30-year fixed-rate mortgage hovered around 6.7 percent as of mid-March, similar to levels for the same period last year.
Yun warned that residential housing mobility is ‘at historical lows,’ signaling the ‘troublesome possibility of less economic mobility for society.’
Sales of previously-owned US homes fell 5.9 percent in March according to industry data, more than analysts expected
Phoenix, AZ is number two on the list for areas facing pricing drops on homes in 2025
The historic district in downtown Winter Haven, at risk for a housing crash this year
NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun
‘The big picture still is one of a very subdued housing market,’ said Oliver Allen, senior US economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
The market is ‘frozen by the gulf’ between the typical rates on new mortgages, which are nearly seven percent right now, and rates on existing mortgages, which averaged 4.3 percent in the fourth quarter.
With mortgage rates elevated in recent times, current homeowners have been reluctant to enter the property market – after having locked in lower rates previously.
‘The tariff shock is unlikely to alter this dynamic dramatically and has so far worsened it at the margin,’ Allen said, referring to sweeping new tariffs US President Donald Trump imposed this year.
But he warned: ‘A hit to housing demand from the economic slowdown likely to follow the tariffs will add to the downward pressure on price growth.’
Robert Frick, corporate economist at the Navy Federal Credit Union, added: ‘Prices for home furnishing will likely rise soon due to tariffs, and rising anxiety among consumers over inflation and jobs may magnify the instinct to hunker down already being felt by many families.’
From a year ago, existing home sales fell 2.4 percent, the NAR said.
The median price of previously-owned homes in March was up 2.7 percent from a year ago at $403,700 — and all four US regions logged price hikes.
Inventory jumped by 8.1 percent from February as of end-March, the NAR said, but Yun told reporters that the volume of units appears to still be ‘lagging.’
