Market update April 2024: Rate cut delays disrupt trends?

Home and rent prices continue their seasonal rise, but the housing market's recovery faces a setback due to delayed interest rate cuts.

• The national median list price increased from $415,500 in February to $424,900 in March, according to Realtor.com. 

• The site also reports a 16% increase in newly listed homes, from 339,370 in February to 395,536 in March.

• While listing activity has improved, the Federal Reserve is expected to defer interest rate cuts until later this year, despite earlier forecasts suggesting cuts could begin in March. This will lead to a longer period of higher mortgage rates.

• After six months of flat or negative monthly changes, the national one-bedroom rent increased 0.3% to $1,487, and two-bedrooms grew 0.5% to $1,847, according to Zumper.

• 66 of Zumper’s top 100 cities saw an increase in rental prices from the previous month, while just 15 fell and 19 reported no change. Prices are still cooling in heavily supplied markets in the South and Southwest.
  

• The National Association of Home Builders reports unchanged monthly builder confidence levels for newly built single-family homes in April, at 51. This breaks a four-month period of gains but it is still at its highest level since July 2023.

• “April’s flat reading suggests potential for demand growth is there, but buyers are hesitating until they can better gauge where interest rates are headed,” said NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz.

• Single‐family housing starts in March reached 1,022,000 – 12.4% below the revised February figure of 1,167,000.

More rental market headlines

How NAR's settlement could change real estate forever – PayProp

Wired: Turning dead malls and suburban shopping strips into apartments – Fortune

Utah landlords rep: Seek charity, loans to pay rent – Axios