Home listings pile up in October, but sellers won’t slash prices

The US housing market remained sluggish in October as buyers pulled back while sellers largely held firm on prices. The resulting build-up of homes for sale matters because it is bringing supply closer to pre-pandemic levels, even as high borrowing costs continue to deter purchases.

Realtor.com counted 183,500 active listings, up 7.4% from a year earlier, the fastest annual rise in eight months; new listings, however, fell 7.5%. Just over one in five sellers cut prices, with no meaningful rise in delistings. Zillow said newly pending sales fell 16.8% year on year, while the typical monthly mortgage payment reached $2,004, up 12.8% from October 2025.