US home sales slump in March as coronavirus bites
US home sales tumbled at the fastest rate in over four years in March, figures have shown, as coronavirus containment measures choked off buyer demand in one of the biggest markets in the world.
Existing home sales slumped 8.5 per cent in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.27m units, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said today. It was the biggest drop in sales since November 2015.
However, the market is likely to slow further in April, as lockdown measures were only partially in place for much of March.
“Unfortunately, we knew home sales would wane in March due to the coronavirus outbreak,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist.
“More temporary interruptions to home sales should be expected in the next couple of months, though home prices will still likely rise.”
Home sales dropped in all four regions of the country in March, the NAR said. There were 1.5m previously owned homes on the market in March, a decrease of 10.2 per cent compared to a year ago.
The slowdown in the enormous US housing market is a sign that the world’s biggest economy is set for a deep recession due to the coronavirus outbreak. The decline will also hit US banks, who make a great deal of money from the property market.
The US government is set to publish its official estimate of first quarter economic performance next Wednesday.
Even though US home sales fell, prices continued to rise. The median house price in March was $280,600, up eight per cent from March 2019 as prices increased in every region.