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Get you up to speed: Home sales in the US are at their lowest level since 2016
Home sales in the US dropped 5.5 percent in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.75 million units, marking the lowest level since August 2010. The decline was attributed to mortgage rates exceeding 7 percent, impacting both buyers and sellers across the country.
The National Association of Realtors reported that the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 7.33 percent in October, marking an increase from 6.86 percent in September. Home sales have declined 8.8 percent year-over-year across all four regions, reflecting ongoing challenges in the housing market since 2022.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) highlighted a challenging market for home buyers and sellers, attributing the 5.5 percent drop in October sales to elevated mortgage rates, which have reached their highest levels since 2000. NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun warned that home sales for the year may end up lower than in 2025, indicating persistent difficulties in the housing market.
What remains unclear — It is uncertain how the recent fluctuations in mortgage rates will specifically impact future home sales in the coming months.
US home sales fall to lowest level since 2010 amid rising mortgage rates
Economy|InflationHome sales in the US are at their lowest level since 2016
Home sales dropped 5.5 percent in October, the lowest level since August 2010.
Published On 12 Nov 202612 Nov 2026
Sales of previously owned homes in the US have hit the lowest level since 2010 as mortgage rates hover above 7 percent.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said on Thursday that home sales dropped 5.5 percent in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.75 million units. That was the lowest level since August 2010.
“Home buying is difficult when mortgage rates have climbed to their highest levels since 2000, aside from a single month in 2023. As a result, home sales fell to their lowest level since August 2010,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun.
He said, “It is just a tough market for buyers and sellers.”
“Sales decreased by 8.8 percent year-over-year,” the NAR report found. “Month-over-month sales declined in the Midwest, South and West and held steady in the Northeast. Year-over-year sales declined in all four regions.”
The home sales used in the report are counted at the closing of a contract and are a look at previously occupied ones. October’s sales likely reflected contracts signed in August and September.
“Despite fewer transactions in October, the 88 million homeowners across the country are largely in a comfortable financial position due to sizable housing wealth accumulation,” said the report.
First-time buyers accounted for just 29 percent of home purchases last month, down from 31 percent in September and 32 percent in October last year, NAR said. First-time buyers have historically made up closer to 40 percent of home sales.
The US housing market has been in a slump since 2022, when mortgage rates increased from pandemic-era lows. Sales of previously occupied US homes were essentially flat last year, stuck at a 30-year low. Yun expects home sales this year will likely end up lower than in 2025.
The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 7.33 percent in October, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, more commonly known as Freddie Mac, up from 6.86 percent in September and 6.25 percent one year ago.
The rate, however, averaged 7.18 percent last week, down from 7.24 percent in the previous week.
Rates on home loans are influenced by inflation, Federal Reserve policy and bond-market investors’ expectations for the economy, among other factors. They generally follow the trajectory of the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.
Until the past few weeks, mortgage rates had been on the rise since late February, when the US war with Iran began, pushing up the price of oil and driving inflation higher. The run-up in rates also reflected heightened bond market volatility, which led to rising yields on US Treasuries.
October 12, 2024
6:18 am
‘Cheer up, you caught the bad guy,’ says killer Virginia McCullough as she is arrested for murdering her parents
A woman who murdered her parents “in cold blood” before hiding them in makeshift tombs for four years told officers to “cheer up, you caught the bad guy” as she was arrested in her home.
Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father John McCullough, 70, with prescription medication and fatally stabbed her mother Lois McCullough, 71, shortly afterwards in 2019.
She ran up large debts on credit cards in her parents’ names and after their deaths, she continued to spend their pensions until she was finally caught in 2023.
In body-worn video footage released by police, a handcuffed – and eerily calm – McCullough told officers: “I did know that this would kind of come eventually.
“It’s proper that I serve my punishment.”
She said she had slipped something into her father’s drink then put his body under a bed on the ground floor, and put her mother’s body in an upstairs wardrobe.
McCullough, having been arrested on suspicion of double murder, told an officer: “Cheer up, at least you’ve caught the bad guy.”
She added: “I know I don’t seem 100% evil.”
At the police station, she told officers where a kitchen knife was, which she described as a “murder weapon”, and a hammer which she said “will still have blood on it”.
McCullough, of Pump Hill, Chelmsford, Essex, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday with a minimum term of 36 years at Chelmsford Crown Court, after she admitted to their murders between 17 and 20 June 2019 at an earlier hearing at the same court.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard how she hid their bodies in makeshift tombs at the family home in Great Baddow in Essex, then told persistent lies to cover her tracks.
The court heard she cancelled family arrangements and frequently told doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips.
But concerns over Mr and Mrs McCullough’s welfare were raised in September 2023 by a GP at their registered practice, and Essex County Council’s safeguarding team referred these to police.
The GP had not seen the couple for some time and said Mr McCullough had failed to collect medication and attend scheduled appointments. It was found McCullough had frequently cancelled appointments, using a range of excuses to explain her father’s absence.
Police said a missing persons investigation was initially launched and McCullough lied to officers, claiming her parents were travelling and would be returning in October.
It became a murder investigation, and when officers forced entry to the house in Pump Hill on September 15 2023, McCullough confessed that her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had killed them.
Nicola Rice, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “McCullough callously and viciously killed both of her parents before concealing their bodies in makeshift tombs within their home address.
“She spent the next four years manipulating and lying to family members, medical staff, financial institutions, and the police, spending her parents’ money and accruing large debts in their name.”
She added: “This was a truly disturbing case, which has left behind it a trail of devastation, and I can only hope that the sentence passed today will help those who loved and cared for Lois and John begin to heal.”
To downplay the genocide, the israelis claim there’s only 20,000 people left in north Gaza, says
@MahaGaza
: the real number exceeds 400,000
Man of the right wing Nigel Farage taking more second jobs and freebie helicopter rides
Gosh he’ll soon be a true blue Tory at this rate
Or far far worse
The cost-of-living crisis is far from over, yet the government’s 50% increase to the bus fare cap is a political choice, adding hundreds to annual costs.
To address hardship & the climate crisis, the government must keep the £2 cap & make public transport accessible for all.
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November 23, 2024
8:25 am
Defense alliance NATO chief Mark Rutte has met US President-elect Donald Trump to discuss global security issues, according to a NATO spokesperson.
The meeting took place in Palm Beach, Florida.
During his first term as US president, 2017-2020, Trump pushed for European NATO countries to spend more on defense and described the alliance’s cost-sharing as unfair to the US.
Rutte took over as NATO chief from Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg in November.
Before taking office in January, Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth for the post of defense secretary, which has raised eyebrows among many allies.
Hegseth, 44, has served as an infantry captain in Iraq and Afghanistan, but has no senior military or government officer experience.
November 23, 2024
8:25 am
November 23, 2024
8:17 am
Multiple missiles were fired in an airstrike towards a densely populated part of Lebanon’s capital early on Saturday.
The huge airstrike targeted Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood, and no prior warnings were given by the Israeli military. The largely residential area was struck last month.
At least one violent explosion was heard across the city, Reuters witnesses said, and plumes of smoke could be seen. Scenes of massive destruction at the site were shared online, including a massive crater in the ground.
“Beirut, the capital, woke up to a horrific massacre, as the Israeli enemy’s air force completely destroyed an eight-story residential building with five missiles on Al-Mamoun Street in Basta,” the state-run National News Agency reported.
The health ministry put the initial death toll at four, with 23 wounded. The number is expected to climb in the coming hours as search and rescue efforts continue.
It came after a long day of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have been non-stop since last week.
The cross-border fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group escalated into a full-blown war in mid-September.
Israel has bombed southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the eastern Beqaa region, and has sent ground troops across the border. Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets deeper into Israel.
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