Investing.com - Sales of previously-owned U.S. homes fell in April, according to figures released by the National Association of Realtors on Thursday.
Existing home sales fell 2.5% in April from the previous month to an annualized pace of 5.46 million units.
Economists had forecasts a 0.2% decrease to an annualized pace of 5.56 million.
Existing home sales account for 90% of the market and are calculated when a contract closes.
NAR indicated that sales also slid 1.4% on an annualized basis as all four major regions saw no gain in sales activity last month.
NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun explained that the slump was due to extremely low inventory levels.
“The root cause of the underperforming sales activity in much of the country so far this year continues to be the utter lack of available listings on the market to meet the strong demand for buying a home,” he said.
“Inventory shortages are even worse than in recent years, and home prices keep climbing above what many home shoppers are able to afford,” Yun added.
According to the report, the median existing-home price for all housing types in April was $257,900, up 5.3% from April 2017 ($245,000).