vs Last Month
+0.08M
Modest gain.
Existing Home Sales
U.S. Monthly · Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate
4.21M
+0.08M vs. last month
Past 12 monthsRange 3.85 – 4.40M
vs Last Year+0.18M
5-Yr Avg4.85M
2005 Peak7.26M
Existing home sales ticked up to 4.21M (SAAR) — still well below the 5–5.5M "healthy" range, but the slow recovery from the 2024 freeze (3.79M low) is real. The lock-in effect from sub-4% mortgages keeps supply tight.
Historical trend
Monthly seasonally adjusted annual rate.
Source: FRED · EXHOSLUSM495S
The long view: since 1995
From the 2005 bubble peak to today's frozen market.
Bubble Peak 7.26M · Sept 2005Trough 3.39M · 2010Today 4.21M
How today stacks up
vs Last Year
+0.18M
Slow recovery underway.
5-Yr Avg
4.85M
Today below the 5-yr mean.
Healthy Range
5.0–5.5M
Long-term "normal" pace.
Use this data
Tools for home buyers and sellers.
About Existing Home Sales
Existing home sales is the monthly count of previously-owned home sales in the United States, published by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). It's reported as a seasonally-adjusted annual rate (SAAR) — meaning the monthly count is multiplied by 12 and adjusted for seasonal patterns. Today's 4.21 million means existing homes are selling at a pace that would total 4.21M for the year if it continued at this rate.
Why existing home sales matter
This is the "volume" side of the housing market — separate from price. Even when prices are climbing, low sales volume signals a frozen market where most homeowners can't or won't sell. Today's pace of 4.21M is dramatically below the 2005 boom peak of 7.26M and well below the 5–5.5M considered "healthy." The post-2022 freeze reflects the "lock-in effect" — homeowners with 2–3% mortgages refuse to sell and re-buy at 6–7%.
Reading this chart
The 2005 spike to 7.26M was the housing bubble peak. The 2008–10 crash dropped sales to 3.4M. The 2020–21 rebound peaked at 6.65M. The 2022–24 slowdown — driven by rate hikes — saw existing sales fall to 3.79M, the lowest in 30 years. The slow recovery to 4.21M today reflects easing rates but persistent affordability constraints.
Related trackers
Other live numbers that move with — or against — this one.
Frequently asked
What this number means, and what it doesn't.
A statistical adjustment that removes regular seasonal patterns (more sales in summer than winter) and projects the current pace to an annual figure. Easier to compare months because it strips out the predictable seasonal noise.
The "lock-in effect." About 60% of U.S. homeowners have mortgages below 4%. Selling means giving that up and re-buying at 6.78%. On a $400K loan, the difference is ~$1,200/mo. Most homeowners refuse to do it — supply is therefore historically tight.
Existing sales (4.21M) dwarf new sales (0.72M) — roughly 6:1. Existing reflects the entire housing stock; new reflects builder activity. They move loosely together but new sales are more economically sensitive (builders cancel projects fast when rates rise).
Around the 20th of each month for the prior month. Released at 10:00 AM ET. Markets react if the number deviates significantly from consensus estimates published by Bloomberg/Reuters.
Methodology
Source
Pulled from FRED · EXHOSLUSM495S and cached on the EvvyTools server.
Update schedule
Refreshed automatically by our cron whenever the upstream source publishes a new value. Historical values are not revised after publication.
How we compute
Display value is the raw published number, unrounded. Comparison stats use the closest available reference date. We never edit the underlying data.