According to data released by the National Association of Realtors on Tuesday, home sales in the US registered a surprising decline by 0.4% to 5.19 million units in April 2019, compared to 5.21 million units in March 2019.

Economists were expecting home sales to register a 2.7% growth to 5.35 million units during April. One of the main drivers for the decline is weakness in the lower-priced segment where there is a dire shortage of available properties. Sale of houses priced under $100,000 dropped by 10% YoY.

Existing home sales also dropped 4.4% YoY in April 2019 for the 14th consecutive time even though there were more such homes put up for sale in the market – 1.83 million in April compared to 1.67 in March 2019.