Housing market numbers to watch this October
Inventory rose 5.4% in September while pending listings fell 4.1%. Here are six numbers that show sellers what kind of market they may list into.
October 5, 2026 · 5 min read
Realtor.com counted 1,161,615 homes actively for sale in September 2026, 5.4% more than a year earlier. At the same time, the number of homes sitting in pending status fell 4.1%.
That combination is getting attention because it shows two sides of the same market. Sellers have more homes to compete with, while fewer listings are moving into contract.
Those aren't the only numbers worth watching. Inventory, pending sales, price cuts, time on market, months of supply, and rates each tell you something different.
What does it mean when active listings rise but pending sales fall?
Active listings are homes currently for sale. Pending listings are homes that have gone but haven't closed yet.
When active inventory rises while the number of pending homes falls, buyers have more homes to choose from and fewer listings are leaving the market for a contract. Realtor.com described that combination as a sign of stagnation worth watching.
It doesn't mean prices must fall or that a particular home won't sell. Those questions depend heavily on the local market, the property, and the price.
We looked more closely at what rising inventory means for sellers in a separate article. If you're starting to think about dates, the home selling timeline works backward from the month you have in mind.
Six housing numbers sellers can watch
1. Active inventory
Realtor.com counted 1,161,615 active listings in September 2026, up 5.4% from a year earlier and 1.9% from August. Inventory was still 9.1% below what Realtor.com considers typical pre-pandemic levels, although that was the narrowest gap it had reported.
Redfin's seasonally adjusted count was 1,497,731 active listings for the four weeks ending September 13, up 1.5%.
The exact figures aren't directly comparable because the two sources measure the market differently. Within either data set, though, rising inventory generally means your listing is sharing the market with more alternatives.
2. Pending sales
Realtor.com said the stock of pending listings fell 4.1% from a year earlier and 6.2% from August.
Redfin counted 299,126 seasonally adjusted pending sales in the four weeks ending September 13, down 5.4% year over year.
A pending sale is counted after the buyer and seller have signed a contract but before the home has closed. So this number is useful for seeing how many listings are making it from "for sale" to "under contract."
3. Price reductions
Realtor.com reported that 20.8% of listings had a price cut in September, 0.9 percentage points more than a year earlier. It was the highest share for a single month since October 2022.
Price reductions don't tell you what any particular home is worth. They do show how often sellers are changing an after the home reaches the market.
4.
Realtor.com reported a median of 61 days on the market in September 2026. That was one day longer than August and one day shorter than September 2025.
NAR, as reported by Reuters, put the August median at 31 days, unchanged from August 2025. The numbers come from different data sets and aren't competing measurements of the same thing.
Days on market is one way to see how quickly buyers are acting. We looked more closely at why homes are taking longer to sell this fall separately.
5. Months of supply
NAR, as reported by Reuters, said 1.62 million homes for sale in August amounted to 4.9 months of supply at that month's sales pace.
Redfin reported 3.9 months of supply in August, unchanged from July.
Months of supply answers a hypothetical question: if no new homes came onto the market, how long would the existing inventory last at the current pace of sales?
6. Mortgage rates
Freddie Mac put the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate at 7.03% for the week ending September 24, up from 6.95% a week earlier and 6.30% a year earlier.
The Mortgage Bankers Association's contract rate was 7.12% for the week ending September 18, as reported by CrossCountry Mortgage. Realtor.com connected some of September's slowdown with mortgage rates rising by nearly 40 basis points during the month.
The rate doesn't change your house, but it does change what a buyer pays each month to borrow the same amount. We explain that more fully in what 7% mortgage rates mean for sellers.
More homes are for sale, while fewer are going under contract. That is the gap to keep an eye on.
Why do Realtor.com and Redfin numbers differ?
They aren't measuring the market in exactly the same way.
Realtor.com reports monthly counts of active and pending listings. Redfin uses seasonally adjusted figures over a rolling four-week period. That is why Realtor.com can show inventory up 5.4% while Redfin shows a 1.5% increase without either figure necessarily being wrong.
New listings show the same difference. Realtor.com counted 394,830 new listings in September, down 0.7% from a year earlier. Redfin counted 363,298 over its four-week period, up 1.5%.
The steadier way to use either source is to compare it with its own earlier readings rather than comparing one source's level directly with another's.
The national numbers don't describe every market
A national figure can move one way while a particular metro moves another.
Realtor.com found more active listings than a year earlier in 43 of the 50 largest metros. Minneapolis inventory was up 31.2%, Seattle 28.5%, and Buffalo 28.0%. At the regional level, the Northeast was up 11.6% and the Midwest 11.3%.
Pending sales also varied. Seattle was down more than 12% from a year earlier. In August, pending sales fell in the Midwest and West while rising in the South and Northeast.
Price cuts ranged from 15.2% of listings in the Northeast to 22.8% in the West.
These are regional and metro readings, not state-level figures.
What these numbers can't tell you
None of these figures tells you what your own home will sell for or how quickly it will go under contract.
There is also no standard national measure for the gap between active and pending listings, and the sources above do not show that such a gap predicts future prices or closing volume.
The numbers are most useful as context. If you want to see what usually happens after a home reaches the market, selling a home on the market walks through that part of the process.
Is September 2026 a buyer's market or a seller's market?
The sources here don't give the national market either label. Realtor.com reported inventory up 5.4% year over year, pending listings down 4.1%, and the highest share of price cuts since October 2022. At the same time, active inventory was still 9.1% below typical pre-pandemic levels. A national label can also hide large differences between metros.
How many homes are currently for sale in the U.S.?
Realtor.com counted 1,161,615 active listings in September 2026, 5.4% more than a year earlier. Redfin counted 1,497,731 seasonally adjusted active listings in the four weeks ending September 13. Because the two sources use different periods and methods, the difference between those counts isn't evidence that one of them is wrong.
How long are homes staying on the market?
Realtor.com reported a median of 61 days on the market in September 2026, one day fewer than a year earlier. NAR, as reported by Reuters, reported a median of 31 days in August 2026. The sources measure the market differently and cover different months, so each figure is more useful when compared with earlier readings from the same source.
Is inventory rising because more sellers are listing?
Not in Realtor.com's September data. Active listings were up 5.4% from a year earlier, but new listings were down 0.7%. So the increase wasn't driven by a rush of new homes. Fewer homes were going under contract, so more listings remained available. Redfin's four-week data showed new listings up 1.5%, another reason to read the two data sets separately.
What is the difference between active, new, and pending listings?
Active listings are the homes currently available for sale. New listings are homes that came onto the market during the period being measured. Pending listings are homes with a signed contract that have not yet closed. Realtor.com reports all three each month.
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