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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.
