US Home Sales Slide as Pending Listings Drop 17% in October
Zillow's October report shows existing home sales fell nearly 9% annually while newly pending listings posted their steepest yearly decline since 2023.
The U.S. housing market showed renewed signs of strain in October, with completed existing home sales dropping 8.7% compared to the same month a year earlier, according to Zillow's latest monthly market report.
Newly pending listings — a forward-looking measure that tracks homes under contract and typically foreshadows the following month's closed sales — fell 16.8% year over year, the sharpest annual decline recorded since 2023. The metric is closely watched by analysts because it signals where transaction volumes are heading in the near term.
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The dual decline in both completed sales and newly pending contracts points to persistent headwinds weighing on housing activity. Elevated mortgage rates have continued to suppress buyer demand while also discouraging existing homeowners from listing properties, a dynamic economists have called the "lock-in effect."
The October data suggests the broader housing market has yet to find stable footing despite modest inventory improvements seen earlier in the year. A drop of this magnitude in pending listings signals that closed sales figures for November could face additional downward pressure.
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