US existing home sales fall in April for third straight month

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - Existing home sales in the US fell in April for the third consecutive month, while the median sales price continued to increase, according to National Association of Realtors (NAR) data released Thursday.

Existing home sales, which measure the change in the number of existing residential buildings sold, fell 2.4% to 5.61 million.

On an annual basis, existing home sales in April decreased 5.9%, from 5.96 million in the same month last year.

"Higher home prices and sharply higher mortgage rates have reduced buyer activity," NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement.

"It looks like more declines are imminent in the upcoming months, and we'll likely return to the pre-pandemic home sales activity after the remarkable surge over the past two years," he added.

The median existing-home sales price rose to $391,200, up 14.8% from a year ago, according to NAR.