Spring housing market struggles as home prices rise and pending sales fall.

The spring housing market has not bloomed due to rising home prices and elevated mortgage rates, leading to affordability challenges for homebuyers. The Mortgage Bankers Association's Purchase Applications Payment Index shows that homebuyer affordability remained constrained in March. Pending home sales decreased in March for the first time since November 2022, and all four regions saw year-over-year declines in transactions. The lack of housing inventory is a major constraint to rising sales, and limited housing supply is simply not meeting demand nationally. The top five states with the highest PAPI (or least affordable) were Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and Florida.