The headline figure is right, but the post has two details off.
The National Association of Realtors reported on October 20, 2026 that its Pending Home Sales Index fell 7.3% in September to 66.0. That is the lowest reading since the series began in 2001, and it was down 11.3% from a year earlier. Reuters, Bloomberg and HousingWire all carried the same numbers. The post is about six days behind that release.
The April 2020 comparison doesn't match the reporting I found. TheStreet Pro says the previous all-time low was 70.8, set in January of this year (revised from 70.9). So the old record fell from January, not April 2020. The gap is 4.8 index points, about 6.8% below that January low.
For context: the index is scaled so 100 equals the average contract activity in 2001, which puts 66.0 about one-third below that benchmark. Mortgage rates explain much of it. Freddie Mac's 30-year average was 7.40% as of October 15, the highest in three years.
Two caveats. Pending sales are signed contracts, which usually close one to two months later, so this is a leading indicator, not a count of closed sales. And 'frozen' is an opinion: the data show a sharp drop, not a halt.
🕒 As of October 2026
