US existing home sales fall to 16-year low as mortgage rates climb

Median existing-home price edges up to $416,700 even as purchases slow

US sales of previously owned homes fell in October to their lowest level since August 2010, as mortgage rates near their highest levels in decades and rising inflation kept buyers out of the market, the National Association of Realtors reported.

Sales of already built units dropped to 3.75 million in October, down 8.8% from last year, the association said. Declines were recorded in the Midwest, South and West, though sales in the Northeast held steady. The median existing-home sales price increased slightly to $416,700.

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis data put the median sales price of houses sold in the US at $393,300 as of Nov. 12 and the 30-year fixed mortgage rate at an average of 7.11% — separate measures and reporting periods from the Realtors group’s monthly figures.

The Guardian reported that mortgage rates had been steadily declining in 2024 and 2025, with the 30-year rate falling below 6% for the first time in February 2026, and that increasing inflation and higher interest rates amid the Iran war have since pushed rates back up to a nearly three-year high. The 30-year mortgage rate, the most commonly used rate in home loans, is now hovering at about 7.18%, not far from its 2023 high of 7.79%; during the pandemic, average mortgage rates were just above 3%.

“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, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors. “As a result, home sales fell to their lowest level since August 2010.”

Pending home sales — contracts signed before closing — reached their lowest level in the association’s recorded history in September, the same month the 30-year mortgage rate topped 7% for the first time in nearly two years.

Mortgage rates have been directly affected by interest rate changes at the Federal Reserve, which raised rates in September for the first time since 2023. The central bank’s rate currently sits in a range of 3.75% to 4%, and the Fed is poised to raise rates again next month to combat heightened inflation, which rose more than expected in October.

Affordability and cost-of-living concerns played an outsized role in the midterm elections that gave Democrats control of Congress next year. According to the latest census data, growth in median rent across the US has outpaced inflation, and the US home-ownership rate has stagnated since 2021.

“I don’t think this is a new normal for home sales,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com. “Instead, it reflects a perfect storm of an abrupt shift in the financial environment and large uncertainties in the pre-election period for both policy and the economy just as the housing market usually slows for the season.”