Existing Home Sales Hit 16-year Low

Educational

BREAKING — Realtor.com Research reports that existing home sales fell to 3.75 million in October, the weakest reading since August 2010 when sales hit 3.68 million. The monthly drop of 5.5% from September's downwardly revised 3.97 million pace, and the 8.8% year-over-year decline from October 2023's 4.11 million, extend a pattern of contraction that has now pushed the resale market to a sixteen-year floor.

For investors and self-employed borrowers watching this inventory drought, the landscape has shifted from simple acquisition to strategic entry. loantrust.ai operates directly in this space, structuring financing around property cash flow through DSCR programs rather than personal income documentation, while also offering bank-statement loans for self-employed borrowers, bridge and fix-and-flip facilities for value-add operators, and multifamily construction products for rental developers. Each file is packaged by one licensed MLO, a dedicated partner rather than a transactional call center, which matters when every basis point and timeline assumption affects whether a deal clears in a thin market.

A sixteen-year low in existing sales means fewer conventional purchase opportunities, stiffer competition for rent-ready inventory, and a premium on speed and certainty for the properties that do trade. In that environment, the structure of the financing relationship becomes part of the investment thesis itself.