U.S. housing cools, jobs stall
Existing‑home sales in the U.S. fell to a nine‑month low in March as mortgage rates rose and supply remained tight. At the same time, overall job growth has slowed and unemployment ticked up to 4.4%, a combination that weighs on near‑term housing demand and market momentum. (reuters.com) (markets.financialcontent.com)
U.S. existing-home sales fell in March to the slowest pace since June 2025 as buyers faced higher borrowing costs and a softer labor market. (finance.yahoo.com) Sales dropped 3.6% from February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.98 million, below the 4.06 million pace economists expected in a Reuters poll. Sales were down 1.0% from March 2025 and fell in all four regions. (finance.yahoo.com) The National Association of Realtors said March ended with 1.36 million homes on the market, equal to a 4.1-month supply, while the median existing-home price rose 1.4% from a year earlier to $408,800. Its affordability index fell to 113.7 from 117.5 in February. (publicnow.com) Mortgage costs stayed high enough to squeeze buyers during the spring selling season. Freddie Mac said the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 6.46% on April 2 and 6.37% on April 10, after sitting below 6% before the recent run-up in Treasury yields described by Reuters. (freddiemac.com) (finance.yahoo.com) The jobs backdrop has not offered much relief. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said nonfarm payrolls rose by 178,000 in March and the unemployment rate was 4.3%, with 7.2 million people unemployed and labor-force participation at 61.9%. (bls.gov) That payroll gain followed a 92,000 decline in February reported by CNBC from the same Bureau of Labor Statistics release cycle, leaving hiring uneven heading into the key homebuying months. Long-term unemployment also rose by 322,000 over the year to 1.8 million in March. (cnbc.com) (bls.gov) Lawrence Yun, the Realtors group’s chief economist, said inventory remains the market’s main constraint and that another 300,000 to 500,000 homes for sale would move conditions closer to normal. He also said rising mortgage rates led the group to cut its 2026 existing-home sales growth forecast to 4% from 14%. (finance.yahoo.com) The latest mix is familiar for buyers: prices are still climbing, listings are improving only gradually, and financing a purchase still costs far more than it did during the low-rate years. March’s sales pace shows that even a modest labor-market slowdown can sap momentum when affordability is already stretched. (publicnow.com) (bls.gov)
