April home sales dip in Greensboro

April home sales dipped nearly 17% from a year ago in the Triangle, and fell just under 30% in Greensboro.

Compared to the pandemic-fueled home-buying surge of the past three years, the North Carolina market, like much of the U.S., has cooled. According to Redfin, in Greensboro there were 264 homes sold in April, down from 374 last year, and just under a third of those sales came with price drops.

Todd McFall teaches economics at Wake Forest University. He says there are a few things driving these changing year-over-year home sale trends. The Federal Reserve has made borrowing more expensive, and mortgages harder to come by. Two years ago, he says people took advantage of historically low interest rates, buying up real estate, and causing home prices to dramatically increase.

"There was a land rush in the United States," says McFall. "People were flush with cash from not spending during the pandemic. There were some increases in income from the pandemic programs or because they were able to keep a job. And interest rates were lower and everyone knew that those interest rates were going to increase."

McFall says another contributor to the turbulent market was a generational turnover — baby boomers aging out of single-family homes while millennials were aging into home ownership — fueling demand. And for the supply side of the equation, McFall says as inflationary pressures like rising construction material costs continue easing builders should soon be more willing to build.