Welcome to this weekly housing trends update, where we bring you the latest snapshot of inventory trends, listing activity, and buyer-seller dynamics across the U.S. housing market.
In addition to our monthly housing trends reports, which offer deeper insights into long-term patterns, we publish these weekly updates to provide more timely views into market changes. This effort began in response to rapid shifts in the economy and housing landscape.
You can count on a new Weekly Housing Trends Update, fresh weekly data each Thursday, and a weekly video from our economists to help you stay informed.
What this week’s data shows
The housing market is shifting as mortgage rates remain lower compared to last year, inventory grows, and listing prices soften. Even with sellers trimming asking prices to attract buyers, sale prices in October still rose modestly as lower mortgage rates earlier in the fall helped more buyers—especially first-time shoppers—close on homes. Existing-home sales climbed to a 4.1 million pace, the fourth straight year-over-year increase. And while the government shutdown created some delays, lower rates helped offset the impact, keeping the market relatively balanced.
Mortgage rates remained near their lowest level in more than a year (6.26% last week), encouraging some buying activity, though affordability challenges persist with sticky home prices and elevated monthly payments compared with pre-pandemic norms.
The delayed September jobs report delivered a mixed message—solid job gains but a higher 4.4% unemployment rate—leaving the Federal Reserve with a tougher call on future rate cuts and adding uncertainty to where mortgage rates head next.
The market is now contending with this mix of factors: modestly higher inventory and longer selling times giving buyers more leverage, price adjustments by sellers reflecting slower demand, and uncertainty in labor and monetary policy shaping expectations for early 2026.
Weekly housing trends highlights
- New listings—a measure of sellers putting homes up for sale—rose 0.3% year over year
New listings remained essentially flat, signaling that moderation is continuing after last week’s modest uptick. Mortgage rates in the low 6% range may be encouraging some homeowners to test the market, but the slowdown in new listing growth compared with earlier in 2025 suggests that sellers remain cautious amid weaker overall deman