Houston Home Sales Are Rising in 2026 — Not Slowing

Houston Market Updates

Open a real estate headline in 2026 and you’ll see the word “slowdown” a lot. Higher rates, more inventory, homes taking longer to sell — all true, all worth understanding. But there’s a number underneath the headlines that tells a different story, and it’s the one I watch most closely: pending sales — homes actually going under contract.

I’m Eddie Weir, a REALTOR® with REMAX Signature in Greater Houston, and my background before real estate was corporate analytics — so I read the leading indicator, not just the headline. Here’s the leading indicator: pending home sales in 2026 are running higher than in 2024 or 2025, both nationally and here in Houston. Demand isn’t collapsing. It’s quietly accelerating. Here’s the data, and what it means if you’re buying or selling this year.

Are home sales slowing down in 2026?

No — the contract data shows the opposite. Nationally, total pending home sales in 2026 have tracked above both 2024 and 2025 for essentially the entire year, peaking at roughly 429,000 homes in contract in late spring, per HousingWire’s pending-sales tracking. The prior two years peaked lower and then rolled over earlier. When more people are signing contracts than in the previous two years, that is not the signature of a market losing steam.

Houston tells the same story in its own numbers. Per the Houston Association of REALTORS® MLS May 2026 report, Houston buyers signed 9,172 pending single-family contracts — up 5.8% year over year, the strongest May for signed contracts since 2022. That’s a four-year high in the exact metric that predicts the next two months of closings.

Read those two facts together — contract activity at a four-year high while the median price sits flat — and you get the defining feature of the 2026 market: steady demand meeting ample supply. Buyers are active, but they have choices, so prices aren’t spiking. That’s a functioning market, and for most people it’s a far friendlier one to transact in than the frenzy of 2021.

Why is Houston demand holding up?

Because the fundamentals underneath it are real, not speculative. Three of them matter most:

• People keep arriving. The U.S. Census Bureau ranked Houston the #1 metro in America for population growth — about 126,700 new residents in the year through July 2025. Every one of them needs somewhere to live. That’s the structural floor under demand, and it’s the story I dig into in why Houston homes are still relatively affordable.
• Jobs and paychecks. Houston’s energy, healthcare, and corporate-relocation base keeps adding positions. Employment cooling from its recent peak is a “steady,” not a “stalling,” signal — and steady employment is what turns interest into signed contracts.
• Financing is easing at the edges. The 30-year mortgage rate sat near 6.5% in late June 2026 (Freddie Mac), down from about 6.85% a year earlier, and the premium lenders charge over Treasuries has been narrowing — a quiet tailwind I break down in why Houston mortgage rates are easing in 2026.