The National Association of Realtors has tracked closed existing-home transactions since 1968. The series peaked at 7.08 million sales in 2005 and slumped to a multi-decade low of 4.06 million in 2024 — the consequence of 7% mortgages locking owners into 3% loans.
NAR's Existing Home Sales report measures closed transactions tracked through the Multiple Listing Service. Existing homes account for roughly 85–90% of all U.S. residential transactions in a typical year.
The 2005 peak of 7.08M existing sales has not been matched. The 2008 collapse cut sales to 4.13M; the 2021 pandemic surge brought them back to 6.12M before the rate-driven freeze of 2022–2024 dragged the count to its lowest level since 1995.
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