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Pending Home Sales See Fourth Straight Weekly Decline as Prices Hit Record High, Redfin Says

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Pending Home Sales See Fourth Straight Weekly Decline as Prices Hit Record High, Redfin Says

Pending home sales in the US fell for a fourth consecutive week amid record-high prices and elevated mortgage rates, Redfin said Thursday.

Sales dropped 0.6% sequentially in the week ended June 7, marking the fourth straight weekly decrease, according to the online real estate brokerage. The median home-sale price rose 1.5% year over year to $400,894, the first time the typical existing home has sold for more than $400,000, according to the report.

"Crossing the $400,000-threshold is a reminder of how difficult it is to break into homeownership for many Americans -- and rising prices of other things is making it even harder," Chen Zhao, Redfin's head of economics research, said in a report. "The high costs of purchasing a home are keeping many buyers out of the market, which has led to a historic buyer's market in most of the country."

The elevated home prices, along with mortgage rates in the mid-6% range, are pushing up monthly housing payments, according to the report.

"Widespread economic uncertainty is also driving prospective buyers away," Redfin said. "Many Americans are jittery about the Iran war (with the US and Israel), inflation and the possibility of a (Federal Reserve) rate hike, among other financial ups and downs."

Earlier in the week, official data showed that US annual inflation accelerated to the highest in about three years last month, fueling expectations that the Fed will keep interest rates on hold for some time.

On Tuesday, another Redfin report showed that US home sellers outnumbered buyers by almost half a million in May, indicating buyers hold the power in the housing market.

"Even though there are more sellers than buyers in the market, new supply is tight enough that prices are staying propped up as some would-be sellers opt to keep their homes off the market as demand slows," the brokerage said in the Thursday report.

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