In another indication of a slowing housing market, sales of existing homes in April fell 0.5% from the prior month to 4 million seasonally adjusted units. Existing home sales last month were down 2% from April 2024, when 4.08 million units were sold, according to a National Association of Realtors (NAR) report released Thursday.

While there are homes to be had, prospective homebuyers have been reluctant to proceed, with 30-year mortgage rates continuing to hover closer to 7% than 6%.

“Home sales have been at 75% of normal or pre-pandemic activity for the past three years, even with 7 million jobs added to the economy,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun in a press release. “Pent-up housing demand continues to grow, though not realized. Any meaningful decline in mortgage rates will help release this demand.”

NAR defines existing home sales as completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops. The association found that the total inventory of this housing stock reached 1.45 million units at the end of April, which is up 9% from March and 20.8% from the prior year. At the current sales pace, unsold inventory is at a 4.4-month supply, up from four months in March and 3.5 months in April 2024.

The median sales price for existing homes reached an all-time high for the month of April at $414,000. However, the 1.8% year-over-year increase in median sales price is the lowest percentage of any month this year, with the rate of price growth falling each month.

Regionally, the Northeast and Midwest had respective year-over-year price gains for existing home sales of 6.3% and 3.6%, while median prices fell 0.1% in the South and were down 0.2% in the West.

“At the macro level, we are still in a mild seller’s market,” Yun said. “But with the highest inventory levels in nearly five years, consumers are in a better situation to negotiate for better deals.”