Sales of luxury homes plummeted 17.8% year over year during the three months ending April 30. That’s a much larger decline than non-luxury homes, which fell only 5.4% in the same period.
The only two times this decade when the drops were steeper came during the 2020 pandemic, when the market fell as much as 23.6%.
The high-end housing market is cooling down after an 80% surge in sales last year, thanks to rising interest rates, soaring inflation, a shaky stock market and uncertain economic outlook. Higher mortgage rates can translate to monthly housing bills increasing by thousands of dollars for the most expensive homes, Redfin said.
Mortgage rates climbed again last week after staying mostly flat for a few weeks, rising in anticipation of Friday’s inflation data, said George Ratiu, Realtor.com’s senior economist and manager of economic research.
Redfin said luxury home sales began to cool off this time last year, when there was a…
