August contract signings beat forecasts as rate pressure mounts
“Nationally, contract signings today are running roughly 30% below where they were in the years leading up to the pandemic,” he said.
“Transaction activity peaked in 2021 when mortgage rates fell to near 3%, a historic low, and has not approached that level since.”
As pending home sales hit their 2026 low in July, brokers have been repositioning client conversations around longer time horizons and more modest starter-home expectations.
At the metro level, several markets outperformed the national trend. Among the 50 largest US metros, Richmond, Virginia, posted the largest annual gain at 11.3%, followed by San Antonio-New Braunfels, Texas, at 6.6%, and Memphis, Tennessee-Mississippi-Arkansas, at 6.4%, according to Realtor.com Economics data.
Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, Virginia-North Carolina, and Cincinnati, Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana, also recorded annual gains of 5.1% and 4.7%, respectively.
