U.S. home listings expanded in October while fewer homeowners put properties up for sale and fewer listings entered contract, a split that gives buyers a larger pool to consider but points to weaker transaction momentum.
Realtor.com Economic Research counted 1,183,520 active listings, up 7.4% from October 2025 and 1.9% from September.
October brought 357,268 new listings, 7.5% fewer than a year earlier. Realtor.com said that was the steepest annual drop since September 2023. The stock of listings under contract was down 10.5% year over year, while new contract signings fell 17%.
The rate at which listed homes were withdrawn was 4.4% in October, compared with 4.6% a year earlier and about 4% in September. Price reductions appeared on 20.5% of active listings. That share was 0.3 percentage points below September, 0.2 points above October 2025, the highest October reading since 2022 and the second-highest monthly reading of 2026. Jake Krimmel, a senior economist at Realtor.com, described sellers’ behavior as “more of a pause than an exodus.”
The national median listing price was $415,000, down 2.2% from a year earlier. October marked the 12th consecutive month in which the median listing price was lower year over year. Realtor.com reported an average 30-year mortgage rate of 7.33% and estimated that rate changes alone had cut buyers’ purchasing power by 10.4% from October 2025.
Inventory remained 6.6% below Realtor.com’s typical pre-pandemic level, the narrowest gap since the pandemic began. The company flagged the holiday months as a test of whether added supply will translate into gains for buyers, saying deeper seller price cuts may be needed. Its listing dataset covers existing single-family homes, condos, townhomes, row homes and co-ops; new construction is included only when listed through a participating multiple listing service.
