Existing home sales rise 3.2% in May to 4.17 million

The pace of existing home sales jumped 3.2% month-over-month in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.17 million units, according to the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) May Existing Home Sales report released Tuesday.

This pace is up 3.2% compared to a year ago. 

“More Americans are on the move, with home sales rising to the highest level since December. This is great news for the housing market and the economy,” Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist said in a statement. “Increased home sales mean more economic activity — lawn care, furniture purchases, moving services, mortgage originations and other related business activities all get a boost.”

The inventory of existing homes for sale at the end of May came in at 1.55 million, up 3.3% from April and 0.6% compared to a year ago. This represents 4.5 months of supply at the current sales pace.

The median sales price of existing homes also continued to rise on a yearly basis in May, jumping 1.3% annually to $429,300. This marks the 35th consecutive month of year-over-year price increases. 

“The new record-high May home price reflects solid fundamentals for homeowners and ongoing supply constraints,” Yun said. 

Despite this price increase, NAR’s Housing Affordability Index showed improvement in May, registering at 105.6, up from 97.5 a year ago. NAR said affordability improved year-over-year across all four regions with the West recording the largest affordability increase at 11.0% and the Northeast with the smallest at 5.1%. 

“Improving affordability is helping drive this momentum. Even with mortgage rates ticking up compared to earlier in the year, they remain lower than a year ago and are essentially at the long-term historical average. Income gains are also outpacing home price growth by a small margin in most parts of the country,” Yun said.

The Realtors Confidence Index, also released Tuesday by NAR, shows that the median time on market was 29 days in May, down from 32 days in April, but up from 27 days a year ago. The share of first-time homebuyers also rose in May, jumping to 35% from 33% in April and 30% a year ago. Additionally, the share of all-cash transactions remained unchanged month-over-month in May at 25%, but this is below the 27% recorded a year ago. 

Regionally, existing home sales were up on a monthly basis in the Northeast (+2.2%), Midwest (+6.4%) and South (+2.0%), while the pace of exiting home sales remained flat month-over-month in the West at an annual rate of 750,000. 

On a yearly basis, existing home sales were down 8.0% in the Northeast to an annual rate of 460,000 units, however they rose 2.0% in the Midwest (1.0 million units), 5.9% in the South (1.96 million units) and 5.6% in the West. 

In more recent data, HousingWire Data shows that an estimated 79,042 single family homes were sold during the week ending on June 5, 2026, down 0.1% year-over-year. The median sales price was also down 1.9% to $409,990, while active inventory of single-family homes has dropped 0.3% to 806,198 homes.