Realtor.com Weekly Outlook: Pending Sales Down 4.1%, Price Cuts Hit Four-Year High

The weekly housing picture got sharper this morning in Realtor.com's October 5, 2026 economic and housing market outlook. The headline numbers: pending home sales in September ran 4.1% below the same time last year, and more than 1 in 5 active listings - 20.8% - carried a price cut. That is the highest share for any September since 2018 and the highest for any month since October 2022.

Active listings kept rising even though fewer new listings came to market, a sign that homes are sitting longer and buyers are gaining negotiating leverage but not using it. The rate backdrop explains why: mortgage rates' 62-basis-point climb over the last five weeks has delivered what Realtor.com calls a $19,000 shock to the homebuying budget of a buyer with a fixed $2,000 monthly budget - erasing more than 6% of purchasing power.

The labor market data released last week offers a possible offset. Hiring was weaker than expected in September, the unemployment rate moved from 4.1% to 4.2%, and downward revisions to July and August hiring reinforced the cooling trend. While wage growth of 3% remains relatively high, it is not beating recent inflation, leaving households with less room for housing payments.

For South Bay buyers and sellers, the message is familiar but newly quantified: sellers who price ahead of the market are being repriced by it at a record September pace, while patient buyers now face the least competition of the year - but at rates near 7.3% to 7.6%. Well-priced homes in the Beach Cities and Torrance are still moving; the question is how far the rate shock pushes the margin down the price spectrum.

Source: Realtor.com - https://www.realtor.com/research/video-economic-and-housing-market-update-october-5-2026/

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