Sales of previously owned homes in the United States fell to their lowest level in more than 16 years in October, as rising mortgage rates and still-elevated house prices pushed would-be buyers to the sidelines.
The National Association of Realtors said on Thursday that existing-home sales dropped 5.5% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.75 million units. That was the weakest pace since August 2010, when sales were still falling after the end of a homebuyer tax credit, and it came in below the 3.85 million rate economists polled by Reuters had expected. Sales were down 8.8% on a year earlier.
Home sales are counted at the closing of a contract, so October’s figures largely reflect deals agreed in August and September, when borrowing costs were at their worst. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate jumped above 7% in late August and reached 7.40% by mid-September, up 142 basis points since late February, according to data from mortgage finance agency Freddie Mac. It averaged 7.18% last week, down slightly from 7.24% the week before.
“Home buying is difficult when mortgage rates have climbed to their highest levels since 2000, aside from a single month in 2023,” said Lawrence Yun, the association’s chief economist.
Sales fell in the South, the Midwest and the West, and were unchanged in the Northeast. The supply of homes on the market is growing even as transactions slow: existing housing inventory rose 1.3% to 1.59 million units, up 4.6% from a year ago. At October’s sales pace it would take 5.1 months to clear the current stock, the most since November 2015, up from 4.7 months in September.
Prices, however, have barely budged. The median existing-home price rose 0.4% from a year ago to $421,900, the highest for any October on record. First-time buyers accounted for 29% of sales, down from 31% in September and 32% a year ago; a share of around 40% is generally seen as needed for a healthy housing market. Homes typically spent 35 days on the market, up from 33 in September, while cash transactions rose to 29% of sales and investors or second-home buyers accounted for 20%.
The figures underline how the housing market has frozen at a time when the Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise interest rates again in December. High borrowing costs are locking in existing owners, who are reluctant to give up cheap mortgages taken out in earlier years, while pricing out first-time buyers. With rates only recently easing from their autumn peak, the next few months will show whether the market is stabilising or sliding further.
Sources: National Association of Realtors, October 2026 existing-home sales release; Reuters, “US existing home sales slump to more than 16-year low in October” (https://www.reuters.com/business/us-existing-home-sales-slump-more-than-16-year-low-october-2026-11-12/).
