# U.S. Home Inventory Rises 7.4% as October Contract Sales Fall 16.8% By John Kim Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/business/53022 Published: 2026-11-10T11:15:23.000Z Updated: 2026-11-10T11:15:23.000Z Section: Business > Newly pending contracts posted their steepest annual decline since August 2023, while the estimated payment on a typical home rose 4.8% from September. Active U.S. home listings rose in October even as newly signed purchase contracts fell, extending a split between growing available inventory and weaker buyer activity. The number of homes for sale reached 183,500, up 7.4% from a year earlier and the fastest annual increase in eight months. Active listings have increased every month since February, despite a 7.5% year-over-year decline in new listings in October. National supply remained 6.6% below typical pre-pandemic levels, the narrowest gap since the pandemic. The figures point to more homes staying on the market even as fewer new properties are listed. Newly pending sales, which count signed contracts before closing, fell 16.8% from October 2025. That was the largest annual decline since August 2023, and October was the slowest October for pending sales since 2018. The drop followed [September’s decline in pending U.S. home sales](). Just over 20% of sellers cut their asking prices in October, a share roughly unchanged from September and October 2025. Sellers also did not meaningfully increase the number of homes they removed from the market. The figures show limited price reductions and withdrawals alongside the drop in new listings. Mortgage rates eased slightly from September but remained more than 1 percentage point above their year-earlier level. Home prices continued to rise. The estimated monthly mortgage payment on a typical U.S. home reached $2,004 in October, assuming a 20% down payment and excluding taxes and insurance. That was 12.8% higher than a year earlier and 4.8% above September, the largest monthly increase in four years. “November is shaping up to have an even larger contraction,” Zillow Chief Economist Mischa Fisher said in a release. “I expect the pace of the slowdown to ease into the new year,” Fisher said. ## Links in this article - [September’s decline in pending U.S. home sales](https://www.tokenpost.com/news/investing/36074)