According to the latest data published by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), sales of existing homes had a slight increase of 0.2% during the month of April due to the dizzying rise in mortgage rates in the last weeks, driven by the economic uncertainty caused by the war in Iran.

The analysts expected for this latest report an increase of 3% as this being the time of greater activity in the market; however, the data remained unchanged in comparison to last year.

In the analysis, NAR presented that existing home sales reached a seasonally-adjusted annualized rate of 4.02 million units, maintaining the same annual rate since 2023 and below 5.2 million its historical level.

However, Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, commented in the report that, despite mixed macroeconomic signals, “housing sales were slightly boosted.” due to the continuous improvement of housing affordability,” he said. In April, the highest price of homes reached $417,700, that is a 0.9% increase than the previous year.

Although the economist did not rule out that the market currently needs a 30% growth in inventory. During the month of April, inventory only increased by 5.8% compared to March. “Multiple offers, although not as tense like a few years ago, they continue to occur. At the same time, the average time that products remain in the market is lengthening, which implies that consumers take their time before making decisions,” he commented.

According to the NAR report, last month, despite 33% of sales being by first-time buyers, there was a drop compared to last year.