Home prices are dropping, but mortgage payments remain high

SALT LAKE CITY — Homes in the United States are becoming a little less expensive to buy.

The median sales price for a U.S. home dropped to $389,601 for the four weeks ending Oct. 25, a 0.1% decline over the same time period a year ago, according to the latest housing market data released by Redfin, an online real estate brokerage.

It's the second straight week that home prices were lower than the previous year after steady year-over-year increases since 2023, the data shows. Prices have been heading down since reaching record highs, including Redfin's $409,000 for the four weeks ending in mid-July.

But the size of a typical mortgage payment is going up due to high mortgage rates. Earlier this year, mortgage rates that had slipped below 6% for the first time since 2022 began rising amid the economic uncertainty created by the war launched by the U.S. and Israel against Iran.

Now, homebuyers are facing the second-highest median mortgage payment on record, $2,786, a 10.7% increase from the same four weeks in 2025. The payment is among the highest levels in Redfin's records at just $10 less than the prior week, when rates were slightly higher.

Weekly average mortgage rates have dipped since hitting a three-year high of 7.4% in early October. Last Thursday, the weekly average rate dropped to 7.24% for a 30-year, fixed-rate loan, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, better known as Freddie Mac.

Seasonally adjusted pending home sales were down for the four weeks ending Oct. 25, falling 15.9% from the prior year to the lowest level in Redfin records that go back to 2021. For a third straight week, pending sales fell in all 50 of the most populated metropolitan areas in the U.S.

The slowdown in sales has helped keep housing inventory up even though new listings fell 0.6% from the prior week, hitting the lowest level since the beginning of the year. Redfin pointed out there are currently "hundreds of thousands more home sellers than buyers nationwide."

In Utah, home prices were up statewide in September, with the median sale price climbing 1.9% from the same month in 2025 to $530,000, according to the most current data available from the Utah Association of Realtors.

But in Salt Lake County, September's $550,000 median home price was down $5,000 from the same month last year, Salt Lake Board of Realtors spokesman Dave Anderton said. Home sales also fell, from 1,093 to 990, he said, noting the increase in mortgage rates from last year.

October may be worse for home sales in Utah's most populous county.

While final sales numbers for last month won't be released until mid-November, Anderton said "preliminary figures point to a steep sales drop in October: 771 sales so far, compared with 1,065 in October 2025, a 27.6% decrease."

He said the "gap will likely narrow" because October sales are still being reported.