Prashant Gopal, Bloomberg News
The important spring home sales season in the US, barely off the runway, is already splashing out.
April is usually when transactions paint overdrive, warm weather for buyers and sellers. However, this year, seasonally adjusted data from Redfin Corp. transactions revealed that since Covid Loctdown in 2020, the number of signed contracts has already been seen as a low mark, down 3% from last April.
The active list for April also swells to the highest level since 2019, suggesting that the home is piled up in the market. The annual price growth measured on completed purchases was just 1.4% compared to the nearly 6% gain recorded in April 2024.
Hope for a spring bounce has run head-to-head with economic disruption as mortgage rates are squeezing affordable prices and President Donald Trump’s trade war president spurred inventory fluctuations and weighed consumer confidence. As a result, no one feels urgent. Those who want to be buyers remain on the sidelines, while sellers are quickly rushed as few are in financial trouble.
“This spring is a kind of cry,” said Sheharyal Bokali, senior economist at Redfin. “Until something decisive in the economy and rates will be low, bottom-level activity in the near future.”
Of course, the market can look very different depending on where you are. Expect the usual bidding wars in the Northeast and Midwest, where buyers are wrestling with strict inventory. Newark metropolitan areas, including many exclusive New Jersey suburbs, led the US with a price increase of 13% year-on-year, followed by Cleveland, jumping almost 12%, with Milwaukee at 9.7%.
Meanwhile, Florida is being crushed as pandemic-era migration for out-of-state buyers dies and property insurance and ownership costs skyrocket. Home builders are lowering existing home sellers by subsidizing mortgage fees and offering other deep discounts.
Signature contracts in Miami fell 23% in April the previous year, the country’s biggest decline, followed by data shows in Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Tampa and Redfin.
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Original issue: May 19, 2025, 2:30pm EDT
