Existing-home sales rose 1.5% in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.99 million, the National Association of Realtors said in its monthly report released Oct. 13 — a gain that still left closings 2.2% below September 2025 and marked one of the weakest stretches of the year.
“Despite the small monthly gain on a seasonally adjusted basis, August and September marked the two slowest months for home sales this year,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “Further increases in mortgage rates in recent weeks mean fewer buyers can qualify to purchase a home.”
The September figure follows August’s 3.98 million rate, the first reading below 4 million since June 2025. Sales declined year-over-year in all four regions.
Investors took one in five homes
One of the report’s larger month-to-month moves was not in sales or prices but in who was buying. Individual investors and second-home buyers accounted for 20% of September transactions, up from 15% in August and 15% a year earlier, according to NAR’s Realtors Confidence Index survey, which underpins the report’s buyer-composition figures.
First-time buyers made up 31% of sales, up from 30% in August and 30% in September 2025. All-cash purchases held at 27% of transactions, down from 30% a year ago. Distressed sales — foreclosures and short sales combined — stayed at 2%.
NAR’s release does not offer an explanation for the investor jump, and a single month of survey data is a thin basis for conclusions. It is worth watching in the October report: a durable shift of that size would change the arithmetic of a market where owner-occupant demand is being squeezed by financing costs.
Prices up for a 39th straight month
The median existing-home price across all housing types was $417,500 in September, up 1.3% from $412,300 a year earlier. That is the 39th consecutive month of year-over-year price gains, though the pace is a fraction of the double-digit increases of 2021 and 2022.
Single-family homes sold at a 3.64 million annual rate, up 2.0% for the month and down 1.9% from a year earlier, at a median price of $422,700 — up 1.2% year-over-year. Condominiums and co-ops ran the other way: sales fell 2.8% to a 350,000 annual rate, down 5.4% from September 2025, with a median price of $363,700, also up 1.2%.
Inventory continued to rebuild. Total housing inventory reached 1.60 million units at the end of September, up 1.9% from August and 4.6% from a year earlier. That represented a 4.8-month supply, unchanged from August but up from 4.5 months in September 2025. Homes took a median 33 days to sell, up from 31 days in August and level with a year ago.
Yun tied those two trends together and drew a conclusion for sellers. “Higher inventory and lengthening days on market give buyers improved negotiating power,” he said. “Home sellers need to be realistic about local market conditions, which could require price discounts and other incentives to attract buyers.”
The South and West carried the month
Regionally, the monthly gain came entirely from the two largest-volume regions. Southern sales rose 2.8% to a 1.86 million annual rate, down 0.5% from a year earlier, with a median price of $361,000, essentially flat at up 0.2%. Western sales also rose 2.8%, to 730,000, but were down 5.2% year-over-year — the steepest annual decline of any region — at a median price of $613,600, down 0.3%.
Midwest sales were unchanged at a 930,000 annual rate, down 2.1% year-over-year, with the median price up 3.1% to $329,600. The Northeast was the only region to fall month-over-month, down 2.1% to 470,000 and down 4.1% from a year earlier, even as its median price rose 4.7% to $523,600 — the strongest regional price growth in the report.
NAR’s Housing Affordability Index registered 105.4 in September, down from 106.7 a year earlier. Affordability deteriorated year-over-year in the Northeast (-4.5%), Midwest (-3.1%) and South (-0.4%), and improved only in the West (+1.0%).
September’s rates were the easy part
The 30-year fixed mortgage averaged 6.86% in September, according to Freddie Mac — up from 6.67% in August and 6.35% a year earlier. That is the figure embedded in September’s closings, and it is already well behind the market. Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey put the 30-year average at 7.40% for the week ended Oct. 8, following 7.28% the week before and 6.30% a year ago.
Because existing-home sales are counted at closing, September’s number largely reflects contracts signed in July and August. The buyers who signed in late September and early October were facing rates roughly half a percentage point higher, and the pipeline data already shows the strain: pending sales fell in every major metro in the most recent reading. On our reading, the two slow months Yun described are more likely to be a floor that moves down than a bottom.
NAR’s next existing-home sales report, covering October, is scheduled for release in November. More housing market coverage is published as the data lands.
