Raphael Stevens

The average rate on the 30-year fixed started July at 6.67% and is now at 6.17%
Inventory rose 14% from September 2024.
The median price of a home sold in September was $415,200, up 2.1% year over year.

An ‘Open House’ sign is posted near a single family home for sale on Aug. 22, 2025 in Pasadena, California.
Mario Tama | Getty Images

Sales of previously owned homes rose 1.5% in September from August to a seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of 4.06 million units, according to the National Association of Realtors. That is slightly less than the analysts were forecasting, but the highest pace in seven months.
Sales were 4.1% higher compared with September of last year.

Regionally, on an annual basis, sales were strongest in the South and Northeast. From August, sales were strongest in the West and actually fell slightly in the Midwest, the only region to see a monthly decline.
This count is based on closings, so people signing contracts likely in July and August, when mortgage rates were coming down but were not as low as they are now. The average rate on the 30-year fixed started July at 6.67% and is now at 6.17%, according to Mortgage News Daily. 
“As anticipated, falling mortgage rates are lifting home sales,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “Improving housing affordability is also contributing to the increase in sales.”
Inventory continued to make gains, up 14% from a year ago to 1.55 million units for sale at the end of September. That is still lean historically. At the current sales pace, there is a 4.6-month supply of homes for sale. A six-month supply is considered balanced between buyer and seller.

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“Inventory is matching a five-year high, though it remains below pre-Covid levels,” Yun added. “Many homeowners are financially comfortable, resulting in very few distressed properties and forced sales. Home prices continue to rise in most parts of the country, further contributing to overall household wealth.” 

Still tight supply continues to pressure prices. The median price of a home sold in September was $415,200, up 2.1% year over year and the 27th consecutive month of annual gains. Prices are 53% higher than pre-Covid levels.
Sales continue to see the biggest gains on the high end of the market, likely because of more supply in those tiers. Sales of home priced above $1 million rose 20% from the year before, while sales of homes priced below $100,000 were up just under 3%.
First-time homebuyers are making some gains, likely due to falling mortgage rates. They made up 30% of September sales, up from 26% the year before.
About 30% of sales were made all in cash. Homes are sitting on the market longer, an average 33 days, up from 28 a year ago. More

American has hired Nat Pieper as its new commercial chief.
Pieper, has worked at Delta, Alaska and most recently at the Oneworld alliance.
Pieper starts Nov. 3 and will oversee the Fort Worth, Texas’ airline’s commercial strategy, loyalty program, network planning and revenue and sales departments, American said.

An American Airlines plane lands at the Miami International Airport on July 24, 2025 in Miami, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

American Airlines has hired nearly three-decade industry veteran Nat Pieper to be its new commercial chief as the carrier’s profits trail rivals Delta and United.
American ousted its former chief commercial officer, Vasu Raja, in 2024 after his business-travel strategy backfired and sparked pushback from lucrative corporate travel agencies, while revenue projections dropped sharply.

Pieper, 56, has worked in the industry since the late 1990s with experience at Northwest Airlines, Delta and Alaska Airlines. Most recently, he’s run the massive Oneworld airline alliance that includes American, British Airways and others. His positions included high-level roles in network, alliances, fleet strategy and finance.

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“He is exactly the kind of leader we want at American — collaborative and a great people leader with a relentless focus on delivering results while keeping an eye to the future,” American CEO Robert Isom said in a staff note, which was seen by CNBC.
Pieper told CNBC in an interview last month that airlines in Oneworld need to do more to improve technology to make travel more seamless for customers, even when they’re moving between partner airlines, a hint of how he might improve technology while he’s at American.
He starts Nov. 3 and will oversee the Fort Worth, Texas’ airline’s commercial strategy, loyalty program, network planning and revenue and sales departments, among others, American said. More

American Airlines posted a smaller-than-expected loss for the third quarter and beat expectations for revenue.
The carrier’s fourth-quarter and full-year forecasts also came in ahead of Wall Street forecasts.

American Airlines posted a smaller-than-expected loss for the third quarter, and its outlook for the rest of the year came in ahead of Wall Street forecasts, sending the stock higher.
American expects to earn between 45 cents and 75 cents per share in the fourth quarter, above the 31 per share cents analysts expected. That brought American’s full-year earnings guidance to between 65 cents and 95 cents per share, well above the projected 43 cents per share Wall Street forecast. The carrier expects its fourth-quarter capacity to grow between 3% and 5% over the same period last year.

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Once a slam dunk quarter, airlines have found it harder to make money in the summer than in years past. Schools reopen earlier than they used to and some travelers opt to take bigger trips later in the year, when the weather is cooler and there are fewer crowds at many popular destinations.
American posted a net loss of $114 million, or 17 cents a share on revenue of $13.69 billion. Revenue was up 0.3% from last year. Excluding net special items of $3 million following the effect of taxes, the company had an adjusted loss per share of 17 cents.
American’s third-quarter outlook in July had disappointed investors, though other carriers had also cut their profit outlooks for the year after demand dropped in early 2025 as customers weighed a slew of on-again, off-again tariffs and economic uncertainty.
An oversupply of domestic flights this year prompted carriers to trim their growth plans to avoid unprofitable flying.
Here is how American performed in the third quarter compared with Wall Street estimates compiled by LSEG:

Loss per share: 17 cents adjusted vs. a loss of 28 cents expected
Revenue: $13.69 billion vs. $13.63 billion expected More

Rents for single-family residential homes rose just 1.4% in August compared with the year before, according to Cotality.
Dallas saw a 0.6% decline in rent growth, the lowest in the nation.
Apartment rent prices nationally were down 0.8% in September compared with the year before, according to a report from Apartment List.

A “for rent” sign is posted in front of a home on Dec. 12, 2023 in Miami, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

Rents for single-family residential homes rose just 1.4% in August compared with the year before, according to analytics and data firm Cotality, down from a 2.3% annual gain in July. That’s also much less than the 3% average gain seen last year and is the smallest increase in 15 years.
Rent growth weakened across all price points, continuing a trend that has persisted in the second half of this year. Rents had been strengthening in the first half of this year.

There were, however, strong variations regionally. Chicago saw the highest annual rent growth at 4.7% in August, followed by Los Angeles at 2.8%, Philadelphia at 2.7% and Washington, D.C., at 2.6%.
Dallas saw a 0.6% decline in rent growth, the lowest in the nation. The city recently had a surge of new multifamily apartments come onto the market, which is keeping supply higher than demand, Cotality said.
“Atlanta, Philadelphia and Los Angeles continue to show stronger rent growth, with Los Angeles now only slightly above its pre-wildfire level from January,” said Molly Boesel, senior principal economist at Cotality. “Los Angeles ranks second among the top 10 metros for rent growth, suggesting that local conditions such as recovery efforts, limited housing supply, and regional economic factors can still influence rental trends even as national price growth moderates.”
High-end properties are faring the best, with August annual rent growth at 1.6%. Low-end rent prices increased 1.1% from a year ago, but both are well off last year’s gains.
Multifamily apartment rents have also been cooling. That is largely due to a construction boom in the sector that delivered a record number of units in the past few years, with more coming on this year.

Apartment rent prices nationally were down 0.8% in September compared with the year before, according to a separate report from Apartment List. That drop, however, was slightly less than the annual dip in August. Rents had been going more and more negative for five straight months.
The national multifamily vacancy rate was 7.1% in September, a record high for that index, according to Apartment List.
“We’re past the peak of a multifamily construction surge, but a healthy supply of new units are still hitting the market, and vacancies are still trending up,” according to Apartment List researchers.
The national median monthly rent in September was $1,394, down $11 from September 2024, the report said. As rents continue to fall, albeit slowly, rents are now below their most recent peak in August 2022, or $48 a month cheaper.
“But that cooldown came following a period of record-setting rent growth, and the typical rent price remains 22% higher than its January 2021 level,” researchers wrote. More

A new CNBC Housing Market Survey found most homebuyers expect mortgage rates to come down further.
Mortgage rates have been creeping down over the last few months, with the 30-year fixed mortgage now sitting at 6.17%.
Most real estate agents surveyed by CNBC listed affordability as the No. 1 reason why buyers are delaying their purchases.

Prospective home buyers leave a property for sale during an Open House in a neighborhood in Clarksburg, Maryland.
Roberto Schmidt | AFP | Getty Images

The majority of would-be homebuyers expect mortgage rates to continue their recent decline, and it’s one of the main reasons why they’re waiting to make a purchase, according to the findings of a new CNBC Housing Market Survey.
Rates have been creeping down over the last few months and are hovering around the lowest level in a year, with the average rate on the popular 30-year fixed loan now sitting at 6.17%, according to Mortgage News Daily. But nearly three-quarters of real estate agents surveyed by CNBC said most of their buyers think rates will come down further.

“My biggest challenge is when buyers hear predictions of future rate decreases, which in turn have buyers sit on the sidelines and wait to see how low they will go instead of getting out there and buying now,” said Maureen States, a real estate agent in Pittsburgh.

The CNBC Housing Market Survey is a national inquiry of real estate agents selected randomly across the United States. Responses were collected between Sept. 22 and Sept. 30. This quarter, 54 agents shared what they’re seeing in their market.
Most agents said they consider the current conditions to favor buyers over sellers, but they still listed affordability as the No. 1 reason why buyers are delaying their purchases.

Despite optimism that mortgage rates will continue to fall, agents said rates are still buyers’ top concern. That was followed by uncertainty in the economy and then just overall affordability.
That sentiment appears at least somewhat divorced from reality, however: 44% of agents reported prices are decreasing in their areas, and just 20% said they are rising.

“Sellers are still pricing for a seller’s market, and buyers are willing to wait for prices and rates to drop. It is a bit of a standoff, and folks are only moving if they absolutely must,” said Katie Kosnar, an agent in North Carolina serving Raleigh and Durham. “Right-sizing used to be a driving factor, but most sellers I’ve encountered will be paying a higher mortgage for a smaller house and just aren’t willing to make that move.”
As a result, buyers are using interest rate buydowns or turning to adjustable-rate mortgages, which offer lower interest rates, in order to offset price pressures.
Roughly 40% of survey respondents said their buyers are borrowing money from family or friends in order to afford a home. Buyers are also compromising on home size, location or features in order to bring the price down, agents said.

The vast majority of agents in CNBC’s survey said they expect home sales to either improve slightly or stay about the same in the next quarter, and about 17% expected sales to drop. Of course this varies by location, with some of the markets that heated up the most during the pandemic seeing the steepest declines, and other more affordable markets seeing bigger gains.

As for sellers, agents reported the biggest concern among that group is how long it will take to find a buyer. Some are concerned they’re pricing their home too low, and sellers, too, are watching mortgage rates closely, agents said.
About 89% of agents who took CNBC’s survey reported having at least one seller reduce their asking price, and nearly a third said more than half their sellers dropped prices.
Roughly 40% of agents said they had at least one seller delist their home, hoping to get a better price later.

Home prices continued to rise on an annual basis through August, according to several other national indexes, but the price gains are shrinking. Prices are gaining most in the Northeast and Midwest and weakening most in the South and West.
The supply of homes for sale in September was higher than it was a year ago, as were new listings after a particularly slow August, according to Zillow.
New listings usually drop from August to September, and while that was true this year — with new listings down 2% month to month — it was a smaller decline than the average 9% monthly tumble seen over the past seven years, also according to Zillow.
Inventory has made solid gains over the past year, but it is still historically tight, especially for more affordable properties.
“For buyers, low inventory and mortgage rates, from an affordability standpoint, are still a challenge,” said Holly David, an agent in Richmond, Virginia. “For sellers who are locked in to a 3% [mortgage] rate, even though they may have a housing want or need, they may not be willing or able to make a move.” More

Starting in 2026, high-income earners will lose tax breaks on charitable donations thanks to Trump’s “one big beautiful bill.”
Lawyers to the rich told CNBC that they expect a flurry of donations before year-end.
Here’s how the tax-incentive cuts work and how top earners can get ahead of them.

Krisanapong Detraphiphat | Moment | Getty Images

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
Lawyers to the wealthy are advising clients to ramp up their charitable giving this year to take advantage of tax advantages that will decline in 2026.

President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax-and-spending bill included provisions that reduce the tax benefits of charitable giving for high earners. Since the provisions don’t take effect until next year, advisors to wealthy donors are recommending they frontload or “bunch” their giving this year to take advantage of tax benefits.
“If you’re thinking about making a big gift, or you know you have a charity that you want to be supportive of over the next couple years, and you got the cash right now, this is the time make a big gift,” said Dan Griffith, director of wealth strategy at Huntington Private Bank.
The bill handicaps top-earning donors in two ways. First, starting in 2026, donors who itemize will only be able to deduct charitable contributions in excess of 0.5% of their adjusted gross income (AGI). With this floor, a household with an AGI of $400,000 that makes $10,000 of charitable donations in 2026 will not be able to deduct the first $2,000 in giving, according to Griffith.
Second, taxpayers in the 37% tax bracket will have their deduction reduced by 2/37th of the value. This ceiling reduces the effective tax benefit from 37% to 35%.

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While the floor and ceiling changes may seem small, they have notable ramifications for top earners. For instance, consider an entrepreneur who has $10 million in AGI after selling a business and donates $1 million to lower his tax liability. If done in 2025, the entrepreneur would get a tax reduction of $370,000, according to Griffith. Starting in 2026, the deduction would be reduced by $20,000 thanks to the ceiling and another $50,000 due to the floor, he said.

These caps are especially significant to entrepreneurs, who often make large donations when their AGI peaks in order to lower their tax burden, according to Kaufman Rossin’s Todd Kesterson, who leads the accounting firm’s private client business.
“We have a lot of our clients because they had liquidity events. I think in every case, the year they had the liquidity event, they made charitable contributions,” he said. “But now it’s kind of the worst year to make them because of the first half percent is not deductible.”
Kesterson anticipates a flurry of donations before the year-end in order to avoid the double whammy.
Top earners who are philanthropically minded should consider bunching their donations, such as giving $500,000 now rather than contributing $100,000 annually over five years, he said.
If they cannot make the donation before the end of the year, they are still better off making one large donation than spreading it out over several years and triggering the 0.5% floor multiple times, according to Griffith.
Despite the tax changes, top earners who are 73 and older can still get major tax savings by donating their required minimum withdrawal from a retirement account.
“It’s in effect, a 100% deduction, because it’s reducing their income, dollar for dollar,” Kesterson said of qualified charitable distributions.
For donors pressed for time with 2026 quickly approaching, Justyn Volesko of Cerity Partners Family Office recommends contributing to a donor-advised fund. With a DAF, donors get the upfront deduction and can wait to decide which charities to fund. It’s also simpler and faster to donate appreciated stock — which Volesko favors for capital-gains tax savings — to a DAF than a charity, he said.
While the GOP bill encourages giving by lower- and middle-income donors, the wealthy account for the majority of charitable giving. Research firm Altrata estimates that some 500,000 ultra-wealthy individuals worth at least $30 million accounted for $207 billion in donations in 2023, more than a third of the world’s total giving by individuals.
Kesterson said the new tax regime is more likely to be a nuisance for wealthy clients than a true obstacle to charitable giving. Griffith anticipates some will wonder if donating is worth it.
“It’s certainly not going to incentivize it,” he said. More