WASHINGTON–Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes increased last month to the fastest pace since February as lower mortgage rates helped pull more homebuyers into the market, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
The NAR reported existing home sales rose 1.2% in October from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.10 million units.
The data show sales climbed 1.7% compared with October last year. The latest sales figure topped the roughly 4.09 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet.
In its analysis, the NAR said October’s home sales were likely limited by shutdown of the federal government, which could have delayed some transactions that would have closed last month.
28 Months of Price Increases
The national median sales price increased 2.1% in October from a year earlier to $415,200, an all-time high for any October on data going back to 1999. Home prices have risen on an annual basis for 28 months in a row, the NAR said.
The organization noted U.S. home sales stuck at around a 4four-million annual pace going back to 2023. Historically, sales have typically hovered around 5.2 million a year.
To close that gap will take a drastic increase in the number of homes on the market and a more meaningful decline in mortgage rates, according to Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, whose 2026 forecast calls for a 14% increase in home sales.
‘Don’t Thin We Will Get There’
“I don’t think we will get there next year,” Yun said. “We need one-million more home sales to get us back to normal. I’m only looking at an additional half-million home sales next year.”
An annual survey of homebuyers by NAR showed first-time buyers accounted for an all-time low 21% of home purchases between July 2024 and June 2025, while the average age of such homebuyers rose to a record-high of 40.
