• Home sales and listings in September both slumped the most on record with the exception of the early months of the pandemic as rapidly rising mortgage rates prompted both buyers and sellers to stay put, according to a new report from Redfin (redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage.
• The number of homes sold dropped 25% year over year while new listings fell 22%—the largest declines since May 2020 and April 2020, respectively, when the onset of the pandemic brought the housing market to a near halt.
• “The U.S. housing market is at another standstill, but the driving forces are completely different from those that triggered the standstill at the start of the pandemic,” said Redfin Economics Research Lead Chen Zhao.
• “This time, demand is slumping due to surging mortgage rates, but prices are being propped up by inflation and a drop in the number of people putting their homes up for sale. Many Americans are staying put because they already relocated and scored a rock-bottom mortgage rate during the pandemic, so they have little incentive to move today.”

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