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NAR: Existing-Home Sales Increased Slightly to 4.02 million SAAR in April

Median House Prices Increased 0.9% Year-over-Year

CalculatedRisk by Bill McBride's avatar
CalculatedRisk by Bill McBride
May 11, 2026
∙ Paid

From the NAR: NAR Existing-Home Sales Report Shows 0.2% Increase in April

Total Existing-Home Sales for April

  • 0.2% increase in existing-home sales—seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.02 million in April

  • 5.8% increase in unsold inventory—1.47 million units equal to 4.4 months’ supply

Inventory in April

  • No change in existing-home sales

  • 0.9% increase in median existing-home sales price to $417,700
    emphasis added

This graph shows existing home sales, on a Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) basis since 1994.

Sales in April (4.02 million SAAR) were up 0.2% from the previous month (March was revised up) and were unchanged compared to the April 2025 sales rate. Sales have been very low for 3+ years.

Housing Inventory Increased in April

The second graph shows nationwide inventory for existing homes.

According to the NAR, inventory increased to 1.47 million in April from an upwardly revised 1.39 million the previous month.

Headline inventory is not seasonally adjusted, and inventory usually decreases to the seasonal lows in December and January, and peaks in mid-to-late summer. The third graph shows the year-over-year (YoY) change in reported existing home inventory and months-of-supply. Since inventory is not seasonally adjusted, it really helps to look at the YoY change. Note: Months-of-supply is based on the seasonally adjusted sales and not seasonally adjusted inventory.

Inventory was up 1.4% year-over-year (blue) in April compared to April 2025. Note the year-over-year inventory changes have slowed sharply.

Months of supply (red) was increased to 4.4 months in April from 4.2 months the previous month. Looking back to pre-pandemic levels, in April 2019 months-of-supply was at 4.2 months, so there is more supply now, on a months-of-supply basis, than prior to the pandemic! Even though inventory is still down compared to 2019, sales have fallen even more - pushing up months-of-supply.

Sales Year-over-Year and Not Seasonally Adjusted (NSA)

The fourth graph shows existing home sales by month for 2025 and 2026.

Sales were unchanged year-over-year compared to April 2025 - following 5 consecutive months with small year-over-year declines.

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