Sales dropped 6.2% from March to an annualized rate of 622,000 units, missing economist expectations of 660,000
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The Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development said Thursday that new U.S. single-family home purchases came in at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 622,000 units in April, a 6.2% retreat from March. Economists had expected a rate of 660,000, according to Bloomberg.
Measured against the same month a year earlier, April's tally was down 11.3%. Sales have declined year-to-date as well, with 225,000 units sold in the first months of 2026 compared with 240,000 in the same period of 2025.
Three of four U.S. regions saw sales decline in April. The South, the country's largest home-selling market, posted a drop of nearly 10%, while the Midwest fell 25% to its lowest level in more than a year, according to Bloomberg. The West was the sole bright spot, with sales climbing 18.7%.
Borrowing costs remained a headwind. Freddie Mac data cited by Reuters showed the 30-year fixed mortgage rate running at 5.98% in late February, then surging roughly half a percentage point to 6.46% by early April, before settling back to 6.30% as the month closed. Earlier in 2026, the expansion of mortgage-backed securities purchases by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had helped push rates lower, but that trend unwound once the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran broke out in late February.
Available supply ticked up to 489,000 units from 481,000 the month before, and at April's selling rate that stock would take 9.4 months to absorb — compared with 8.7 months in March. According to Reuters, the growing backlog of unsold homes is giving builders reason to pull back on new construction starts.
On price, the typical new home that changed hands in April carried a tag of $422,500, reflecting a 2.2% year-over-year gain. The bulk of transactions fell in the $300,000-to-$799,999 band. As a measure of statistical uncertainty, the report's margin of error at the 90% confidence level spanned a range from a decline of 19% to a gain of 6.6%.
Government data released last week showed single-family starts and permitting activity both moving lower in April, extending a streak in which residential investment has now shrunk for five quarters running.
The next new residential sales report, covering May 2026, is scheduled for release on June 24, 2026.
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