The National Association of REALTORS® Pending Home Sales report indicates that pending home sales in August increased by 0.3% month-over-month and decreased by 4.7% year-over-year.
The report enables the real estate ecosystem, which includes agents, homebuyers, and sellers, to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the housing market by furnishing data on the number of home sales that are currently under contract.
The South and West experienced an increase in pending home sales from month to month, while the Northeast and Midwest experienced a decline.
In all four main U.S. regions, pending home sales experienced a decrease from the previous year.
Dr. Lawrence Yun, the Chief Economist of the National Association of Realtors (NAR), stated that despite the rise in mortgage rates, buyers continued to enter into contracts in August.
“However, the housing market remains stagnant, with contract signings falling below those of the previous year.” This is a result of the fact that the increased purchasing power generated by job growth and income growth is offset by the higher mortgage rates, which are outpacing the growth of property prices.
“The Northeast and the Midwest experienced the most rapid increase in home prices in August, which is partially responsible for the significant decreases in contract signings that were observed in those regions,” Yun stated.
“At the national level, contract signings are currently approximately 30% lower than they were in the years preceding the pandemic,” Yun noted.
“The transaction activity reached its zenith in 2021, when mortgage rates plummeted to nearly 3%, a historic low, and has not reached that level since.”
National Pending Home Sales in August 2026
Month-over-month growth of 0.3%
A decrease of 4.7% from the previous year
Regional Pending Home Sales in August 2026
Northeast
Month-over-month decrease of 4.2%
A decrease of 3.9% from the previous year
Midwestern region
A 1.6% decrease in comparison to the previous month
A decrease of 4.9% from the previous year
South
2.3% month-over-month growth
A decrease of 3.8% from the previous year
West
3.0% month-over-month growth
A 6.7% decrease from the previous year
Several markets experienced substantial year-over-year increases in pending property sales at the local level.
According to Realtor.com® Economics data, the following 10 markets registered the most significant annual increases in pending property sales among the 50 largest metro areas:
Richmond, VA (+11.3%)
San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX (+6.6%)
Memphis, TN-MS-AR (+6.4%)
Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC (+5.1%)
Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN (+4.7%)
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX (+4.2%)
Birmingham, AL (+4.0%)
Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA (+1.7%)
Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood, IN (+0.9%)
St. Louis, MO-IL (+0.2%)
[Read more about this topic on nar.org]