US Adds 115K Jobs in April as Q1 GDP Rises 2%

April existing-home sales edged up just 0.2 percent to an annualized rate of 4.02 million units, according to National Association of Realtors data, falling short of the more than 3 percent gain analysts had projected. Sales matched the level from a year earlier, with the figures reflecting contracts signed in late February and March when 30-year fixed mortgage rates sat in the high 5 percent range before rising sharply after the outbreak of hostilities between the United States, Israel, and Iran.

Lawrence Yun, the NAR chief economist, pointed to mixed signals in the broader economy, including a record stock market alongside subdued consumer confidence. He noted that mortgage rates remain below year-ago levels and that wage growth has outpaced home-price increases, offering modest support to affordability. Inventory rose 5.8 percent from March, reaching a 4.4-month supply, though that remains well below the six-month threshold for market balance. Multiple offers persist in some areas, yet average days on market lengthened to 32 from 29 a year earlier, suggesting buyers are proceeding more deliberately.

The median sale price reached $417,700, up 0.9 percent from the prior April and marking the highest April reading in NAR records. Limited supply continues to underpin prices even as higher borrowing costs constrain demand.

The same Middle East developments have lifted European natural gas prices roughly 40 percent since the conflict began, raising costs for electricity generation and transportation fuels. In the United States, however, equity markets have shown resilience. Corporate profit margins for the S&P 500 reached 13.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to FactSet, the highest level since tracking began in 2009. The technology sector posted particularly strong gains, with net margins climbing to 29 percent from 26.8 percent a year earlier.

These outcomes occur against a backdrop of earlier concerns that tariffs and regional instability would sharply curtail business performance. Actual results indicate that many firms have maintained pricing power and operational flexibility sufficient to expand margins despite elevated input costs in certain sectors. Housing data, by contrast, illustrate how credit-sensitive markets transmit higher interest rates more directly to transaction volumes.

Inventory growth remains modest, and analysts continue to cite the need for substantially larger increases in listings to ease price pressures. Persistent tightness in supply, rather than speculative excess, appears to be the dominant constraint on sales volume.