[ATLANTA] Sales of previously owned US homes fell in January by the most in nearly four years, a month marked by a massive winter storm.

Contract closings decreased 8.4 per cent, the biggest drop since February 2022, to a 3.9 million annualised pace in January, according to National Association of Realtors (NAR) data released on Thursday (Feb 12). That trailed the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

An extensive winter storm in late January that blanketed much of the US with snow and ice may have delayed many contract closings. In the hard-hit South, the nation’s biggest home-selling region, sales slumped 9 per cent to an annualised pace of 1.8 million. Closings also fell sharply in the rest of the country.