U.S. home sales fell for a second straight month in April due to weak sales in the lower-priced segment of the market.
Existing home sales fell 0.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.19 million units last month. March’s sales pace was unrevised at 5.21 million units. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast existing home sales rising 2.7% to a rate of 5.35 million units in April. Existing home sales, which make up about 90% of U.S. home sales, dropped 4.4% from a year ago.
That was the 14th straight year-on-year decrease in home sales.