Home Sales Plummet 5.9% in March, Hitting Slowest Pace Since 2009
The housing market’s spring fever has turned into a full-blown cold. Existing home sales tumbled 5.9% in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.02M units, marking the slowest March pace since the Financial Crisis. This sharp drop adds to the pressure from high mortgage rates and near-record home prices, which have already dashed the hopes of potential buyers as the selling season approaches.
- Available inventory jumped 19.8% from Mar. 2024, creating a four-month supply that gives buyers more options — but demand remains tight, with sales down 2.4% year-over-year.
- Despite the slowdown, the median existing home price rose to a March record of $403.7K (up 2.7% YoY), but with nearly one in four listings seeing price cuts, pressure is mounting on sellers as demand cools.
The market turns: Rising home prices and falling sales are two trends that don’t easily align. And with more homeowners being denied for HELOCs and refinancing, sellers might soon face difficult decisions. In fact, signs show they already are. According to Redfin, 44% of home sellers are offering concessions to close deals — near an all-time high. And even then, home prices are falling in 11 of the 50 most populated metros, the largest number of declines in 19 months.
Additional reporting by Noah Weidner.