Pending home sales experienced a significant decline in September, as reported by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) on Tuesday.
Following a slight increase of 0.3% month-over-month in August, the NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index fell by 7.3% in September, with a reading of 66.0—marking the lowest point in the history of the index.
Compared to the same time last year, the index decreased by 11.3%.
Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, linked the drop to “rapidly increasing mortgage rates.”
“While job growth and rising incomes can bolster home buying, housing affordability is predominantly influenced by fluctuations in mortgage rates,” Yun noted. “Given that mortgage rates have surged beyond the Federal Reserve’s short-term interest rate adjustments, it’s possible that we are reaching a peak. Despite challenges in securing a mortgage, a limited supply of distressed properties is helping to stabilize home prices. Both buyers and sellers may be biding their time until mortgage rates become more favorable.”
HousingWire Data, which utilizes updated statistics compared to NAR’s index, indicates that for the week ending October 16, 2026, there were 51,947 new pending single-family home sales—down 13.1% from the previous year.
Regionally, NAR’s data reveals a decline in pending home sales across all four regions month-over-month. The West (49.3) saw the steepest drop of 9.2%, while the Northeast (59.0) experienced the smallest decline at 4.2%. Annually, pending home sales fell by 8.7% in the Midwest (67.3), 15.0% in the West, 9.4% in the Northeast, and 12.0% in the South (79.2).
Among the 50 largest metropolitan areas tracked by NAR, the smallest annual decreases in pending home sales for September were recorded in Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, TN (-2.0%), Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT (-2.1%), and San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA (-3.5%).
