Home prices remain near records as U.S. sales slow

U.S. home sales slowed in June even as the median price of an existing home reached a record, leaving affordability strained for buyers facing high prices and mortgage rates.

The National Association of Realtors said existing-home sales fell 2.4% from May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.09 million. The rate was 2.8% above June 2025, but it is an annualized pace, not the number of homes that actually sold during June.

What changed in June

The median existing-home sales price rose 1.8% from a year earlier to $440,600, the highest level in NAR’s series dating to 1999. The median has increased year over year for 36 consecutive months, underscoring why a slower market has not yet produced broad price relief.

NAR reported 4.6 months of inventory at the end of June, or approximately 1.56 million homes available but not yet sold. That gives buyers more choice than during the tightest periods of the housing market, but supply remains limited relative to longer-term norms and local demand.

Why asking prices look different

Separate data from Realtor.com show a softer part of the market: the median listing price fell 2.5% from a year earlier to $430,000. Realtor.com described that as the largest annual decline in its data series, which began in 2017.

Those figures measure different parts of the market and are not contradictory. NAR measures closed-sale prices, while Realtor.com measures asking prices on current listings. Listing prices can weaken as sellers adjust expectations, while the mix and timing of homes that close in a given month can keep the median sale price elevated.

Realtor.com also reported that active listings increased 1.9% annually to 1,102,615, although nationwide inventory remained 11.3% below typical 2017-19 levels. The additional listings give some buyers more homes to compare and more opportunities to negotiate, but they do not eliminate the national supply shortfall.

Where buyers have gained leverage

Price reductions appeared on 18.8% of active Realtor.com listings in June. Homes spent a median of 53 days on the market, the same as a year earlier. Together, those figures show that sellers in some markets are facing less urgency from buyers than during the most competitive periods.

That leverage is uneven. Median listing prices fell 4.0% year over year in the West and 2.5% in the South, while prices were flat in the Midwest and down 1.0% in the Northeast. Buyers in markets with more price cuts, longer marketing times and growing inventory may have greater negotiating room than the national figures suggest. The data do not establish a broad national buyer’s market.

Why monthly affordability remains difficult

Mortgage rates continue to limit the benefit of any lower asking price. Freddie Mac reported an average 30-year fixed mortgage rate of 6.66% on July 30, up from 6.55% on July 16.

At that rate, borrowing costs can keep monthly payments high even when a seller reduces the price. Taxes, insurance, maintenance and other ownership costs add to the burden. A lower listing price therefore does not automatically translate into a lower monthly payment.

First-time buyers remain especially exposed because they are less likely to have equity from a previous home. The Associated Press reported that first-time buyers accounted for 33% of June purchases, compared with a historical share of about 40%.

What to watch next

The key questions are whether inventory growth accelerates, whether mortgage rates move lower, and whether the slower sales pace begins pulling closed-sale prices toward the softer listing-price trend.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s release schedule lists August 25, 2026, for the quarterly house-price index covering June 2026 and the second quarter. That report will provide another national price measure; the scheduled release date means its June results should not be treated as available before then.

For now, the national market is slower and somewhat more negotiable in selected areas, but it is not broadly affordable. Buyers may find more listings and more price cuts, yet high prices and mortgage rates continue to shape the size of the monthly payment.

Sources

Discover more from Interactive News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.