The spring 2026 housing market continues to prove much more resilient than previous years. The increase in pending home sales that sparked “cautious optimism” in April did indeed materialize into an increase in existing-home sales in May, according to the latest data from the National Association of Realtors® (NAR).
NAR’s Existing-Home Sales report saw sales grow 3.2% to a rate of 4.17 million in May, up from the essentially flat 0.2% increase seen in April. NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun noted that existing-home sales are at their “highest level since December.” Year-over-year, sales are up 3.2%.
As mentioned, a 1.4% increase in pending activity back in April led to higher expectations for May sales. However, in a conference call, Yun clarified that while pending home sales data is “a very good suggestive early indicator” of existing-home sales, it is not always definitive.
“Sometimes the relationship is not as strong as before, but pending mortgage applications and all this other data—like foot traffic, opening the lockbox—is implying that perhaps we’re trying to break out of this housing slump and into more movement in sales activity,” he continued.
Single-family existing-home sales grew 3.5% month-over-month and 3.3% year-over-year to a rate of 3.8 million. Condo and co-op sales saw no change month-over-month at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 370,000, up 2.8% year-over-year.
Historically lower mortgage rates and growth in inventory—which in turn contributes to bettering conditions in affordability—are what Yun pointed to as strong proponents for the increase this month. Yun also explained that the new “record high” this month “reflects solid fundamentals for homeowners and ongoing supply constraints.”
“Only 1% of all home sales involved a foreclosure or an underwater situation in which the sale price could not cover the outstanding mortgage balance,” he continued. “This shows that homeowners are on solid financial footing.”
Additionally, first-time buyers are stepping back into the market more and more, with 35% of sales in May attributed to the group. Yun noted that this is the “the highest first-time buyer percentage since June 2020,” a strong sign of normalization to come in the market. The shares of cash sales, individual investors or second-home buyers and distressed sales were all down in turn.
Regionally, sales were once again mixed, with more growth than decreases in May. The Northeast was up 2.2% month-over-month at a rate of 460,000, down 8% year-over-year. The Midwest was up 6.4% month-over-month and 2% year-over-year to a rate of 1 million. The South was up 3.2% month-over-month and 5.9% year-over-year to a rate of 1.96 million. Lastly, the West was unchanged month-over-month at a rate of 750,000, up 5.6% year-over-year.
Turning back to the aforementioned inventory, NAR saw existing home inventory grow for the fourth consecutive month in May. Existing home inventory clocked in at 1.55 million units, up 3.3% month-over-month and 0.6% year-over-year. This is about a 4.5-month supply, unchanged month-over-month and down slightly from 4.6 months one year ago.
With inventory increases, affordability also continues to see marginal improvements. NAR’s Housing Affordability Index registered at 105.6 in May, up from 97.5 one year ago. Affordability also improved year-over-year across all four regions: the Northeast was up 5.1%, the Midwest was up 6.6%, the South was up 8.4% and the West was up 11%.
Speaking of affordability, the median home price was up 1.3% to $429,300, slightly up from the 0.9% gain last month but in line with the continuing trend of deceleration in price growth.
For housing segments, the single-family home price grew 1.3% year-over-year to $434,300, while the condo and co-op price grew 1.7% year-over-year to $378,200. Regionally, the Midwest was up 2.8% to $336,300, the South was up 1.1% to $373,100 and the West was actually down 0.7% to $625,900. The largest outlier was the Northeast at 4.2% year-over-year growth to $534,900, due to constrained inventory in the region.
