The typical American home sold for $388,634 in October, according to Redfin's monthly housing market report, published Nov. 10. That is 0.4 percent less than in October 2025, and it is the first year-over-year decline in Redfin's national median sale price since May 2023. Two months earlier, in August, the same measure was still running 2.5 percent above the prior year.

A 0.4 percent dip on a national median is small. On a $388,634 home it works out to roughly $1,600. What makes the October figure worth knowing is the direction of the series and what sits around it in the same report: fewer contracts, more homes for sale, and a record share of listings with a price cut.

What the October report counted

Redfin's figures cover the whole United States and compare October 2026 with October 2025 (year over year) and with September 2026 (month over month). Most of the measures are seasonally adjusted; the median sale price and the mortgage rate are not, which is why the price comparison is made against the same month a year earlier rather than against September.

  • Pending sales, homes that went under contract, fell 3.6 percent from September and 15.1 percent from a year earlier, to 300,430. Outside of April 2020, Redfin says that is the lowest level since 2013.
  • Closed sales fell 2.1 percent from September and 6.7 percent from a year earlier, to 274,987, the fewest since December 2023.
  • Active listings rose to 1,526,984, up 2 percent from a year earlier and the most since early 2020.
  • New listings fell 3.9 percent from a year earlier, to the lowest level in more than two years. Fewer owners are listing, but the homes already on the market are sitting longer, which is why the total keeps growing.
  • Months of supply reached 4.3, up half a month from a year earlier. Median days on market was 50.
  • Price cuts: 36 percent of listings had at least one price drop, the highest share in Redfin's records. Sixty-one percent of homes sold below their original list price.

Why demand is soft

Redfin ties the slowdown largely to borrowing costs. The average 30-year fixed rate averaged 7.33 percent in October in the figures the report uses, up 0.47 percentage point from September and 1.08 points from a year earlier. Contracts that fell apart before closing also rose, to 14.9 percent of pending sales, up 1.8 points from October 2025.

The picture is not the same everywhere

Redfin also breaks out the 50 most populous metro areas, and they point in different directions. The largest year-over-year price declines were in Austin, Texas (down 6.5 percent), Seattle (down 5.1 percent) and Nashville, Tennessee (down 4.9 percent). The largest increases were in San Francisco (up 16.8 percent), New Brunswick, New Jersey (up 7.7 percent) and Pittsburgh (up 6.5 percent). Active listings rose fastest in San Jose, California, Seattle and Boston, each up more than 20 percent, and fell most in three Florida metros: Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Jacksonville.

How this fits with other price measures

Redfin's median sale price is one measure among several, and they do not always agree month to month. A median moves with the mix of homes that happen to sell, so a month with more lower-priced sales can pull it down even if individual homes have not lost value. Repeat-sales indexes such as the S&P Cotality Case-Shiller index and the Federal Housing Finance Agency's house price index track the same homes over time and are released with a lag of about two months, so they will show October later. One month of a slightly negative median does not establish a trend, and Redfin's own series was positive as recently as September.

What a reader can do with it

For an owner wondering what a home is worth, the national median says little about one street. The more useful numbers are local: recent closed sales nearby, how long similar homes have been listed, and how many have cut their price. Redfin publishes its metro-level data on its data center page, and a local agent or appraiser can pull closed sales for a specific neighborhood.

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