By Prashant Gopal, Bloomberg News

The crucial spring home-sales season in the U.S., barely off the runway, is already sputtering.

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April is normally when transactions kick into overdrive, warmer weather drawing in buyers and sellers alike. But this year, the number of signed contracts was the lowest for the month since the Covid lockdown in 2020, according to seasonally adjusted data from Redfin Corp. Deals were down 3% from last April, already seen as a low mark.

Active listings for April also ballooned to the highest level since 2019, suggesting homes are piling up on the market. And annual median price growth, measured by completed purchases, was just 1.4%, compared with the almost 6% gain recorded in April 2024.

Hopes for a spring bounce have run headlong into economic turmoil as high mortgage rates squeeze affordability and President Donald Trump’s trade wars spur stock swings and weigh on consumer confidence. As a result, nobody feels any urgency. Would-be buyers are staying on the sidelines and sellers are in no rush because few are in financial distress.

“This spring is sort of a whimper,” said Redfin senior economist Sheharyar Bokhari. “You’re on that low bottom level of activity for the foreseeable future until something definitive happens with the economy and rates.”

Of course, the market will look very different depending on where you’re located. Expect the usual bidding wars in the Northeast and Midwest where buyers struggle with tight inventories. The Newark metropolitan area, which includes many exclusive northern New Jersey suburbs, led the U.S. with a 13% year-over-year price increase, followed by Cleveland, with an almost 12% jump and Milwaukee at 9.7%.

Meanwhile, Florida is getting crushed as the pandemic-era migration of out-of-state buyers dies down and property insurance costs and other expenses of ownership soar. Homebuilders are undercutting sellers of existing homes by subsidizing mortgage rates and offering other deep discounts.

Signed contracts in Miami fell 23% in April from a year earlier, the biggest drop in the country, followed by Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Tampa, Redfin’s data show.

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