NAR Pending Home Sales Report Shows 0.3% Increase in August

Month-Over-Month

• 0.3% increase in pending home sales
• Gains in the South and West; declines in the Northeast and Midwest

Year-Over-Year

• 4.7% decrease in pending home sales
• Declines in all four regions

WASHINGTON (September 17, 2026) - Pending home sales in August increased by 0.3% month-over-month and decreased 4.7% year-over-year, according to the National Association of REALTORS® Pending Home Sales report. The report helps the real estate ecosystem-including agents, homebuyers and sellers-better understand the housing market by providing data on the level of home sales under contract.

Month-over-month pending home sales increased in the South and West but declined in the Northeast and Midwest. Year-over-year pending home sales declined in all four major U.S. regions.

"Buyers steadily entered into contracts in August even though mortgage rates increased," said NAR Chief Economist Dr. Lawrence Yun. "However, the housing market is still sluggish, with contract signings below last year. This is due to higher mortgage rates offsetting the increased buying power created by job gains and income growth outpacing home price growth."

"The Northeast and the Midwest saw the fastest home price growth in August, which is part of the reason that those same two regions posted the steepest declines in contract signings," Yun said.

"Nationally, contract signings today are running roughly 30% below where they were in the years leading up to the pandemic," Yun added. "Transaction activity peaked in 2021 when mortgage rates fell to near 3%, a historic low, and has not approached that level since."

August 2026 National Pending Home Sales

• 0.3% increase month-over-month
• 4.7% decrease year-over-year

August 2026 Regional Pending Home Sales

Northeast

• 4.2% decrease month-over-month
• 3.9% decrease year-over-year

Midwest

• 1.6% decrease month-over-month
• 4.9% decrease year-over-year

South

• 2.3% increase month-over-month
• 3.8% decrease year-over-year

West

• 3.0% increase month-over-month
• 6.7% decrease year-over-year

At the local level, several markets posted notable year-over-year gains in pending home sales. Among the 50 largest metro areas, the following 10 markets posted the biggest annual increases in pending home sales, according to data from Realtor.com® Economics:

1. Richmond, VA (+11.3%)
2. San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX (+6.6%)
3. Memphis, TN-MS-AR (+6.4%)
4. Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC (+5.1%)
5. Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN (+4.7%)
6. Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX (+4.2%)
7. Birmingham, AL (+4.0%)
8. Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA (+1.7%)
9. Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood, IN (+0.9%)
10. St. Louis, MO-IL (+0.2%)

About the National Association of REALTORS®

The National Association of REALTORS® is involved in all aspects of residential and commercial real estate. The term REALTOR® is a registered collective membership mark that identifies a real estate professional who is a member of the National Association of REALTORS® and subscribes to its strict Code of Ethics. For free consumer guides about navigating the homebuying and selling transaction processes-from written buyer agreements to negotiating compensation-visit facts.realtor.

# # #

*The Pending Home Sales Index is a leading indicator for the housing sector, based on pending sales of existing homes. A sale is listed as pending when the contract has been signed but the transaction has not closed, though the sale usually is finalized within one or two months of signing.

Pending contracts are good early indicators of upcoming sales closings. However, the amount of time between pending contracts and completed sales is not identical for all home sales. Variations in the length of the process from pending contract to closed sale can be caused by issues such as buyer difficulties with obtaining mortgage financing, home inspection problems, or appraisal issues.

The index is based on a sample that covers about 40% of multiple listing service data each month. In developing the model for the index, it was demonstrated that the level of monthly sales-contract activity parallels the level of closed existing-home sales in the following two months.

An index of 100 is equal to the average level of contract activity during 2001, which was the first year to be examined. By coincidence, the volume of existing-home sales in 2001 fell within the range of 5.0 to 5.5 million, which is considered normal for the current U.S. population.

Information about NAR is available at nar.realtor. This and other news releases are posted in the newsroom at nar.realtor/newsroom. Statistical data in this release, as well as other tables and surveys, are posted in the "Research and Statistics" tab.