Buying a house keeps getting more expensive: realtors

• Home prices climbed to record highs for April, according to the National Association of Realtors.
• The median home price in April was $407,600.
• With prices and interest rates high, Americans have been struggling to find affordable homes to buy

Home prices reached record highs in April, a new report from the National Association of Realtors found.

The median price of an existing home climbed 5.7% year over year in April to $407,600, keeping pressure on prospective homeowners already dealing with high interest rates.

The association said it’s the 10th month in a row of year-over-year increases and the highest-ever tally for the month of April.

Home prices rose despite the total number of existing home sales in April being relatively flat at 4.14 million.

“Home sales changed little overall, but the upper-end market is experiencing a sizable gain due to more supply coming onto the market,” Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said in a statement.

Though there are some brighter spots in the market with lower down payments, overall, home affordability has plunged since the pandemic with rocketing mortgage rates and high property prices driven by nationwide supply shortages.

The trends have now made renting more affordable than buying in most major cities — with landlords emerging as major winners.

If you’re hoping for a drop in interest rates soon, you may need to keep waiting. This week, Christopher Waller, the Federal Reserve’s governor, said the Fed will need to see “several months” more of signs that inflation is cooling before lowering rates.

The Fed jacked up interest rates to combat a surge in inflation. But while rates have remained high, so have inflation indicators and consumer prices.