If you are getting ready to list your home this fall, there is a number worth paying attention to before you set a timeline. Zillow's September Market Report, released October 6, 2026, shows that newly pending home sales, the listings that moved from for-sale to under contract, fell 8.5 percent compared with a year earlier, and dropped 11.2 percent compared with August alone. That is not a small monthly wobble. Newly pending sales are a forward-looking measure, meaning they tend to show up as closed sales about a month or two later, so a pullback this size in September points to a quieter October and November for closings nationwide.
The slowdown did not happen in isolation. Zillow's preliminary nowcast puts closed sales of existing homes down 2.5 percent from a year earlier in September, and the report ties the softness directly to financing costs: mortgage rates ended the month at 7.28 percent, the highest reading since November 2023, according to Freddie Mac. Higher borrowing costs have pushed the monthly payment on a typically priced home to $1,922 a month with a 20 percent down payment, excluding taxes and insurance, which Zillow calculates as 6.7 percent higher than the same month last year. That is a meaningful jump in what a buyer has to qualify for and feel comfortable paying every month, and it is showing up directly in how many of them are willing to sign a contract right now.
For a seller, the practical effect is time. Zillow found that homes took a median of 29 days to go pending in September, two days longer than the same month a year ago and two days longer than August. Twenty-nine days may not sound dramatic, but it is part of a steady drift in the wrong direction, and it lines up with another figure in the report: 27.4 percent of September listings had a price cut, up from 26.2 percent a year earlier and 26.3 percent in August. More listings are sitting long enough that sellers are adjusting price to restart interest, and that share has been climbing for several months running.
None of this means your home will not sell. It means the market has less urgency in it than it did a year or two ago, and your listing has to work harder to stand out. Inventory is part of the story here too. Zillow counted 1.39 million homes for sale nationwide in September, 2.5 percent more than a year earlier, marking the 34th straight month of annual inventory gains. New listings were up only 0.4 percent from last September and remain 11.9 percent below pre-pandemic norms, so the growth in total inventory is coming mostly from homes staying on the market longer rather than a flood of new sellers. Total inventory is still running 16.1 percent below pre-pandemic levels, so this is a market with more choices than recent years, not a market that is overflowing with options the way it was before 2020.
What a Slower Pending-Sales Trend Means for Your Listing
If newly pending sales are falling nationally, the buyers who are active right now tend to be more selective and more price-sensitive, since the ones with financing flexibility to spare are a smaller slice of the pool than they were when rates were lower. That has a few practical implications when you are mapping out your own sale. First, build extra time into your plans. A national median of 29 days to pending does not describe your specific block or your specific price point, but it is a signal that the cushion between listing and contract has gotten a little longer almost everywhere, and your local agent can tell you what that number looks like in your zip code specifically. Second, pay close attention to how your home is priced relative to recent comparable sales rather than relative to what similar homes were worth eighteen months ago. With 27.4 percent of listings needing at least one price adjustment last month, getting the number closer to right on day one is worth more than it used to be, since a listing that sits and then gets cut can pick up a stale reputation with buyers who are watching days-on-market closely.
Third, remember that a slower pace cuts both ways for you as a seller. If you are planning to buy again after you sell, which Zillow's report notes describes most sellers, the same conditions holding back first-time buyers are also keeping would-be move-up sellers on the sidelines, which is part of why new listings have grown so slowly even as total inventory climbs. That dynamic is a reason some sellers choose to list anyway rather than wait for conditions to shift, since a quieter market for your sale is also a quieter market for your next purchase, with less competition from other buyers bidding against you.
Rent trends add one more layer worth knowing if you are weighing whether to sell now or hold the property and rent it out instead. The typical U.S. rent rose 2.7 percent year over year in September to $1,932, according to the Zillow Observed Rent Index, the fastest annual rent growth since April 2025. Rent growth accelerating while home sales slow is an unusual combination, and it is one more data point worth bringing into a conversation with your agent or lender about what makes sense for your specific situation, rather than a number to lean on by itself.
Setting Realistic Expectations Before You List
The headline takeaway from Zillow's September data is straightforward: the housing market cooled off last month, buyers who are still active are taking longer to commit, and a rising share of sellers are adjusting price to get a deal done. None of that means fall is a bad time to sell. It means the sellers who do best right now are the ones who go in with realistic expectations about timeline and pricing from the start, informed by current local data rather than by how the market behaved a year or two ago. Talk with your agent about what days-on-market and price-cut trends look like specifically in your neighborhood before you set your number, since national figures are a useful starting point but your block is what actually determines your outcome.
