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Economy/Total Home Sales
HousingUpdated with every release

Total US Home Sales

The total annualized pace of US home transactions: existing-home sales (NAR, from our reconstructed full-history series) plus new-home sales (Census Bureau), both seasonally adjusted annual rates, monthly since 1999. One number for how many homes are actually changing hands.

Latest reading

As of May 2026, Total Home Sales (Total home sales (SAAR)) stands at 4.77M — up from 4.67M the prior reading. The combined pace peaked near 8.4M in 2005, bottomed near 4.1M in 2010, and collapsed from ~7.4M to under 5M after the 2022 rate shock. Because the two components respond differently — builders can buy down mortgage rates while resale sellers sit on 3% loans — the mix between them is itself a signal: new construction taking share marks a lock-in-frozen resale market. Series history runs from 1999 to present.

Sources, methodology & freshnessLast updated 2026-07-20 · Open ↓
Source
NAR (existing, reconstructed archive series) + US Census Bureau (new), computed join, monthly SAAR
Methodology
Complete monthly history, charted as released — release-dated readings, no smoothing or adjustment beyond what the chart legend states
Updates
Monthly, with every releaseLast: 2026-07-20
Maintained & reviewed by Yuriy Matso — methodology shown on the page.
Total Home SalesReleased 2026-06-24covers May 2026
4.77M
from 4.67M

Total home sales (SAAR)

YoY %
2.3%
All-time high 8.53M (2005-07)
All-time low 3.73M (2010-07)
Since 1999
Observations 329

Next release: ≈ Jul 24, 2026

01

Full history

Range:

Total sales (SAAR)

Total home sales (SAAR)SPY price (right, since 1993)

Year-over-year %

The combined pace's annual change — green above 0, red below. The 2022 collapse was the fastest in the series outside 2008.

Total sales YoY %SPY price (right, since 1993)Zero line

Existing only

The resale component (NAR) — roughly 85-90% of all transactions.

Existing home sales (SAAR)SPY price (right, since 1993)

New only

The new-construction component (Census). Builders can cut prices and buy down rates, which is why this leg held up far better after 2022.

New home sales (SAAR)SPY price (right, since 1993)
02

Methodology & data

Total Home Sales is sourced from NAR/Census directly from the publisher’s own dataset (NAR (existing, reconstructed archive series) + US Census Bureau (new), computed join, monthly SAAR). We pull the complete history, chart it on a monthly basis, overlay SPY for context, and generate a dated plain-English reading from the latest release — with no smoothing or adjustment beyond what the chart legend states.

Every reading is stamped with its release date, last updated 2026-07-20. Maintained and reviewed by Yuriy Matso; see our methodology for the standards every series on the site is held to.

03

Frequently asked questions

What is the Total US Home Sales?

The total annualized pace of US home transactions: existing-home sales (NAR, from our reconstructed full-history series) plus new-home sales (Census Bureau), both seasonally adjusted annual rates, monthly since 1999. One number for how many homes are actually changing hands.

How do you read Total Home Sales?

The combined pace peaked near 8.4M in 2005, bottomed near 4.1M in 2010, and collapsed from ~7.4M to under 5M after the 2022 rate shock. Because the two components respond differently — builders can buy down mortgage rates while resale sellers sit on 3% loans — the mix between them is itself a signal: new construction taking share marks a lock-in-frozen resale market.

Where does the Total Home Sales data come from?

NAR (existing, reconstructed archive series) + US Census Bureau (new), computed join, monthly SAAR. We chart the full history and publish a dated, plain-English reading with every release; the raw series is downloadable as CSV at /data/indicators/total-home-sales.csv.

How often is Total Home Sales updated?

Total Home Sales is a monthly series from NAR/Census, refreshed here as soon as a new release posts to FRED.

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