Existing home sales sank in March with their largest monthly decline since 2022. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), existing home sales fell 5.9% from February, hitting a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.02 million units in March. The latest reading came in below the expected 4.14 million.
Existing home sales are down 2.4% from one year ago, marking the lowest annual change since August.
"Home buying and selling remained sluggish in March due to the affordability challenges associated with high mortgage rates," said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. "Residential housing mobility, currently at historical lows, signals the troublesome possibility of less economic mobility for society."
Background on Existing Home Sales
Existing home sales measures the monthly sales of previously owned single-family homes. It makes up a huge part of the residential real estate market, as 90% of purchased homes are previously-owned according to the National Association of Realtors. More importantly, there exists a strong correlation between purchases of existing homes and consumer spending. An increase in existing home sales can indirectly stimulate economic activity with increased consumer spending on new furnishings and appliances. Alternatively, a sustained drop in existing home sales often foreshadows a downturn in the economy.
Here is a snapshot of the data series, which comes from the National Association of Realtors. The data since January 1999 was previously available in the St. Louis Fed's FRED repository and is now only available for the last twelve months.
Over this time frame, we clearly see the real estate bubble, which peaked in 2005 and then fell dramatically. Sales were volatile for the first year or so following the Great Recession with monthly sales as low as 3.45 million units to as high as 5.44 million units. We have seen that same volatility following the most recent recession, with sales ranging between 3.85 million units to 6.73 million units.
