New home sales dropped for the fourth straight month in April, offering up another sign that the housing market is starting to slow.
The volume of new single‐family home sale fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 591,000 last month, according to the [Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development]( https://www.census.gov/construction/nrs/pdf/newressales.pdf), down 16.6% from the March rate and 26.9% lower than the rate a year ago.
The figure also missed the consensus outlook of 750,000 units from [Econoday]( https://us.econoday.com/byshoweventfull.asp?fid=541837&cust=us&year=2022&lid=0&prev=/byweek.asp#top), while March was also revised down to 709,000 from 763,000.
The miss in sales adds to a [host of other recent metrics showing the once-blistering hot housing market is starting to cool ]( https://money.yahoo.com/housing-market-cooling-off-173703861.html)as many homebuyers are priced out by mortgage rates that remain at 13-year highs.
“While new construction gained favor with many would-be buyers over the past two years due to the extreme shortage of existing homes for sale, the rising cost of a new home is now pricing many people out of the market,” George Ratiu, senior economist and manager of economic research at Realtor.com, said in a statement.
