US home sales slumped in October to slowest pace in more than 16 years as mortgage rates surged

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes slumped in October to their slowest pace in more than 16 years as mortgage rates climbed sharply, ratcheting up borrowing costs for aspiring homebuyers.

Existing home sales fell 5.5% last month from September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.75 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. That’s the slowest annual sales pace since August 2010, when the market was still reeling from the late-2000s U.S. housing crash.

Sales sank 8.8% compared with October last year. The latest sales tally fell short of the 3.8 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet.

“It is just a tough market for buyers and sellers,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist.

Home sales have been mostly hovering close to a 4-million annual pace going back to 2023, far short of the historic norm that is closer to 5.2 million. Octob...