Closed home sales across the Washington region plunged 19.2% year over year in October, as buyers balked at mortgage rates that stayed stubbornly above 7% and sellers began cutting prices just to get deals done. New purchase contracts dropped 20.4% over the same period, while showing activity fell 15.2%, signaling that the pullback is not just a blip but a broad retreat from the market heading into the colder months.
Inventory Piles Up as Buyers Stay Away
The numbers, tracked by Bright MLS and detailed in a report covered by UrbanTurf, paint a picture of a market where supply is swelling even as demand shrinks. Active listings across the DC area reached 13,260 in October, a 22.1% jump from a year earlier, and months of supply climbed to 3.38, up from 2.70 last October. That combination is unusual: more homes sitting on the market for longer, with fewer buyers showing up to look at them.
“Buyers are holding back this fall with rates above 7%,” said Bright MLS Chief Economist Lisa Sturtevant, in comments included in a Bright MLS report released Tuesday. The report also found that sellers who need to move are increasingly dropping their asking prices and offering concessions to get deals done, per the same account from UrbanTurf's coverage of the DC-area figures.
A Region-Wide Slowdown, Not Just a DC Problem
The retreat extends well beyond the District. Across the entire Bright MLS service area, 16,794 homes closed in October, a 12.0% decline compared to the same month last year, and new purchase contracts across that broader footprint fell 17.4%. At the end of October, the service area counted 58,931 active listings, up 22.1% from a year earlier, mirroring the inventory buildup seen in the DC-specific numbers.
Mortgage rates are the throughline connecting all of it. The average 30-year fixed rate in October 2026 was a full percentage point higher than in October 2025, according to the Bright MLS report. Freddie Mac separately reported the 30-year fixed rate averaging 7.40% as of October 15, unchanged from the week before, a level that has made monthly payments punishingly expensive for anyone financing a purchase.
The Slowdown Has Been Building for Months
This isn't a sudden, single-month stumble. Across the Bright MLS service area, closed sales had already fallen 5.2% year over year in September, marking a second consecutive monthly decline, while showing activity in the Mid-Atlantic region dropped 12.6% that same month. By October, the Mid-Atlantic's showing activity had slid further, down 12.8% year over year to 244,073 total showings, even as the region's median sold price held essentially flat at $425,000, unchanged from a year earlier.
Despite the steep drop in transactions, Bright MLS does not expect prices themselves to crater. The firm said home sales activity across the Mid-Atlantic region will continue to be sluggish through the end of the year, with inventory expected to keep rising, though no significant price drops are anticipated in most markets. UrbanTurf's report on the DC figures echoed that forecast, noting that sluggish conditions are expected to persist through year-end even as listings continue to pile up.
For now, the region's housing market looks like one where sellers are increasingly willing to negotiate and buyers are increasingly unwilling to commit, a standoff that, per Bright MLS, shows no clear sign of breaking before 2027.
