Quikrete Industry Dashboard

Existing home sales, as measured by the National Association of Realtors, slipped 1.9 percent in April — both on a monthly and annual basis—to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.14 million.

That slip was the big story on this week’s Quikrete Industry Dashboard, along with a 5 cent decline from a month ago in the average price of a gallon of regular, which now stands at $3.62.

Meanwhile, new home sales are also down, according to data released May 23 by the U.S. Census Bureau. Mortgage rates that averaged above 7% since mid-April per Freddie Mac data acted as a drag on new home sales last month.

Sales of newly built, single-family homes in April fell 4.7% to a 634,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate from a downwardly revised reading in March, according to newly released data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. The pace of new home sales in April is down 7.7% from a year earlier.

“The last four weeks mortgage rates have been above 7% and this is clearly causing many potential home buyers to sit on the fence,” said Carl Harris, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a custom home builder from Wichita, Kan. “However, in the weeks and months ahead, we expect mortgage rates to fall below 7%. Moderating rates, along with a dearth of existing inventory, should help new home sales recover as new construction will be needed to meet the demand for homes, especially during this crucial spring/summer season.”

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Coming next: The Conference Board will release the closely watched Consumer Confidence Index for May on May 28. Currently, the index stands at 97.0 (1985=0).