(NEWSMAX) – Contracts to buy U.S. previously owned homes dropped to a two-year low in April, the latest indication that rising mortgage rates and higher prices were dampening demand for housing.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said on Thursday its Pending Home Sales Index, based on signed contracts, fell 3.9% last month to 99.3. That was the sixth straight monthly decline and pushed contracts to the lowest level since April 2020, when activity was depressed by COVID-19 lockdowns.
Pending home sales fell in the Northeast, West and South, but rose in the Midwest. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast contracts, which become sales after a month or two, would decline 2.0%. Pending home sales dropped 9.1% in April on a year-on-year basis.
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