US existing home sales hit eight-month high as mortgage rates fall
By Benjamin Chiou
Date: Thursday 20 Nov 2025
(Sharecast News) - Existing home sales in the US rose to their highest in eight months in October, following two straight monthly gains, according to the National Association of Realtors.
The number of existing home sales - a widely followed key economic indicator that tracks the current housing stock excluding newly built homes - rose 1.2% over the month to an annualised rate of 4.10m, the highest number of sales since February, when sales surged to 4.27m.
October's figures followed a downwardly revised 1.3% gain in September, marking the third increase over the past four months. Compared with October 2024, sales were up 1.7%.
Housing inventory totalled 1.52m units, down 0.7% over the month, equating to a 4.4-month supply of unsold inventory, down from 4.5 months in September.
Sales increased across the Midwest over the month due to a "plentiful supply of affordable houses", the NAR said and rose in the South because of solid inventory levels. However, sales showed no change in the Northeast due to a lack of supply, and fell in the West as a result of high home prices.
"Home sales increased in October even with the government shutdown due to homebuyers taking advantage of lower mortgage rates," said the NAR's chief economist Lawrence Yun.
"Rents are decelerating which will reduce inflation and encourage the Federal Reserve to continue cutting rates and pulling back their quantitative tightening," Yun added. "This will help bring more homebuyers into the market since the Fed rate has an indirect impact on mortgage rates."
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