Pending home sales retreated in June on both a monthly and annual basis, driven down by mortgage rates climbing to a 10-month high and home prices setting a new record.
Contract signings plunged 5.4% compared to May and ticked down 0.3% from a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors® Pending Home Sales report released Thursday.
The month-over-month pullback was recorded across the U.S., while year-over-year pending dipped in the South and West but increased in the Northeast and Midwest.
NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun attributes the slide to challenging economic conditions, including mortgage rates averaging 6.49% in June, the highest since August 2025, according to Freddie Mac.
Meanwhile, the median sales price continued rising, edging up 1.8% to $440,600, an all-time high.
“The highest mortgage rates in nearly a year and the record-high national median home price together are contributing to a tepid housing market that is especially difficult for first-time homebuyers,” says Yun. “However, job gains can help support housing demand.”
Regionally, Midwest experienced the biggest month-over-month decrease in pending sales, which fell 8.9%, followed by the West (-4.7%), the South (–4.1%), and the Northeast (-3%).
Looking at annual changes in contract signings, Northeast saw an increase of 2.2%, while the Midwest ticked up just 0.3%.
On the other hand, pending sales dipped 1.1% year over year in the West and 0.9% in the South.
At the metro level, Virginia Beach, VA, was June’s biggest winner among the nation’s 50 largest markets, with contract signings there surging 15.4% annually, followed by Sacramento, CA (+15.2%), and Kansas City, MO (+14.4%).
“It is worth emphasizing that it is closing activity, not contract signings, that generates economic impact,” stresses Yun. “Pending contracts are only suggestive of upcoming closed deals and do not align perfectly, due to fallout rates and contract contingencies.”
Pending home sales mark the first formal step in the homebuying process and typically lead closings by one to two months, making them a useful gauge of near-term activity. A slight uptick in May translated into existing home sales climbing in June for the third consecutive month.
Metros with biggest pending home sale increases in June
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Virginia Beach, VA (+15.4%)
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Sacramento, CA (+15.2%)
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Kansas City, MO (+14.4%)
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Richmond, VA (+14%)
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Buffalo, NY (+12.1%)
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Austin, TX (+11.1%)
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San Francisco, CA (+9.4%)
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Los Angeles, CA (+9.6%)
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Miami, FL (+9.5%)
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St. Louis, MO (+9.1%)
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Snejana Farberov is a reporter at Realtor.com covering the U.S. housing market and the latest domestic real estate trends. She has worked as a general assignment journalist in New York City and Long Island for 16 years, writing for New York Post, Daily Mail, and News 12. Snejana earned bachelor’s degrees in journalism and Italian from St. John’s University, followed by a master’s degree from Columbia University School of Journalism.
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