Pending home sales data for August 2026 shows contract signings rose 0.3 percent from July, though activity remained down from a year earlier as mortgage rates stayed elevated.
The National Association of Realtors’ Pending Home Sales report for August 2026 showed month-over-month gains in the South (2.3 percent) and West (3 percent), offset by declines in the Northeast (-4.2 percent) and Midwest (-1.6 percent). Year over year, pending home sales fell 4.7 percent nationally, with declines across all four major regions.
Lawrence Yun | Chief Economist at the National Association of Realtors
“Buyers steadily entered into contracts in August even though mortgage rates increased,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement. “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.”
Yun linked the Northeast and Midwest’s steeper annual declines to those regions posting the fastest home price growth in August. Nationally, he said, contract signings are running roughly 30 percent below pre-pandemic levels, with transaction activity yet to return to the pace set in 2021, when mortgage rates fell near 3 percent.
Regional breakdown, year over year:
- Northeast: -3.9 percent
- Midwest: -4.9 percent
- South: -3.8 percent
- West: -6.7 percent
Separate weekly data from Redfin showed pending sales falling to their lowest level in nearly three years for the four weeks ending Sept. 13, with the company’s economists pointing to reduced competition and more negotiating room for homebuyers still in the market.
Metros with the biggest annual gains in pending sales
Among the 50 largest metro areas, these markets posted the largest year-over-year increases, per data cited in the NAR release:
- Richmond, Virginia (+11.3 percent)
- San Antonio-New Braunfels, Texas (+6.6 percent)
- Memphis, Tennessee-Mississippi-Arkansas (+6.4 percent)
- Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, Virginia-North Carolina (+5.1 percent)
- Cincinnati, Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana (+4.7 percent)
- Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, Texas (+4.2 percent)
- Birmingham, Alabama (+4 percent)
- Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, California (+1.7 percent)
- Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood, Indiana (+0.9 percent)
- St. Louis, Missouri-Illinois (+0.2 percent)
By the numbers
- 0.3 percent: August increase in pending home sales from July
- 4.7 percent: Decline in pending home sales from a year earlier
- 30 percent: How far below pre-pandemic levels contract signings remain, per Yun
- 3 percent: Mortgage rate low reached in 2021, the last time transaction activity hit its recent peak
- 6.7 percent: West region’s year-over-year decline, the steepest of the four major regions
- 11.3 percent: Richmond, Virginia’s year-over-year gain in pending sales, the largest among the 50 biggest metros
