Zillow: Housing Market Slows as Pending Sales Drop 8.5%
Zillow's September report signals a cooling housing market, with newly pending sales falling 8.5% and existing home sales down 2.5% year over year.
The U.S. housing market entered an early winter in September, according to Zillow's latest monthly market report, with key indicators pointing to a broad slowdown in buyer activity. Newly pending sales — a forward-looking measure that anticipates future closed transactions — dropped 8.5%, a sharp decline that suggests the months ahead could bring further weakness in closed sales figures.
Existing home sales also retreated, falling 2.5% compared to the same period a year earlier, based on Zillow's nowcast methodology. The pullback reflects persistent affordability pressures tied to elevated mortgage rates, which continue to sideline prospective buyers and dampen transaction volume across the market.
Read more Heartland Summit Draws 350 Leaders to Bentonville for Economic Talks →
While the for-sale market struggled, the rental sector offered a contrasting picture. Rent gains accelerated in September, posting the largest annual increase since April 2025, underscoring continued demand for rental housing as homeownership remains financially out of reach for many households. The divergence between a cooling sales market and a strengthening rental market reflects the longer-term affordability constraints reshaping housing demand nationwide.
The combination of declining pending sales and softening closed transactions adds to concerns among analysts that the fall and winter selling seasons could prove particularly sluggish. Pending sales are closely watched because they typically convert to closed sales within one to two months, meaning September's steep drop is likely to ripple through fourth-quarter data.
Continue reading at Economic News, Trends, Analysis.
