Published October 25, 2026 in Market Update

Sales are up across Deal of the Week even with rates above 7%

By Jason & Susan Zwolak

Real estate, Deal of the Week

Here is the number that caught my eye this week. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 817 pending sales across Deal of the Week in the three months ending August 31, 2026. That is up 12.8% from a year ago. Freddie Mac put the 30-year fixed rate at 7.32% on October 22, 2026. Rates are high. Deals are still happening.

That 12.8% jump in pending sales tells you demand did not disappear. It shifted. Pricing and timing matter more now, not less. A home priced right is still going under contract. One priced wrong is sitting.

Sales and listings across the whole market

More sellers listed this year. More buyers went under contract. But total homes for sale actually dipped 2.4%, per the Real Estate Data Aggregator. That means listings are moving. They are not piling up.

CNBC reported that mortgage applications to buy a home fell 7% for the week ending around October 21, 2026. Nationally, buyers are pulling back. Here, pending sales are up. That gap is worth paying attention to.

How each ZIP code is reading right now

The market-wide numbers look solid. But each ZIP is telling its own story. Some are moving faster. Some are sitting longer. Here is what the Real Estate Data Aggregator showed for each one in the three months ending August 31, 2026.

Costa Mesa (92626) had the fastest median at 38 days on market. Aliso Viejo (92656) had the strongest sale-to-list ratio at 99.3% and 116 pending sales. Both are worth watching if you are thinking about timing a sale.

Corona Del Mar (92625) stood out on the coast. Pending sales jumped 38.2% from a year ago, per the Real Estate Data Aggregator. Months of supply fell to 3.2. Homes sold rose 30.2%. That is real movement in a high-price ZIP.

Laguna Beach (92651) had its own bright spot. The Real Estate Data Aggregator showed the share of homes going under contract within two weeks jumped 12.7 points from a year ago. Median days on market fell 30 days shorter. Sellers who priced well found buyers faster.

Newport Coast (92657) was the one ZIP where pending sales slipped, down 3.6% from a year ago. Sale-to-list came in at 94.4%, the lowest across all ten ZIPs. That does not mean homes are not selling. It means buyers there have more room to negotiate.

The rate picture

Freddie Mac put the 30-year fixed rate at 7.32% on October 22, 2026. That is real. It changes what a buyer can afford. But 817 pending sales across this market says buyers are working around it, not walking away.

Realtor.com reported that the number of homes for sale nationally rose 7.7% from a year ago as of October 22, 2026. More supply nationally can give buyers options. Here in Deal of the Week, supply actually ticked down 2.4%. Local conditions are not the same as the national picture.

What the quick-contract numbers tell you

One of the clearest signs of demand is how fast homes go under contract. The Real Estate Data Aggregator tracks the share that went under contract within two weeks of listing.

Costa Mesa (92626) led the market. The Real Estate Data Aggregator showed 40.5% of homes there went under contract within two weeks. Irvine 92604 came in second at 34.9%, and that share was up 8.8 points from a year ago. Homes priced well are not sitting long.

Where prices moved

Not every ZIP saw prices rise. Some dipped. That is an honest read of where things stand.

Newport Coast (92657) showed a 100.3% jump in median price. That is a big number. It almost always means the mix of homes that sold shifted toward larger or higher-end properties, not that every home doubled. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted only 27 homes sold there. A small number of sales can move the median a lot.

The Irvine ZIPs saw prices soften. Irvine 92602 was down 13%. Irvine 92612 was down 11.4%. Both still saw more homes sold than a year ago. More sales at lower prices can mean buyers found value and stepped in.

These are market-wide numbers for the three months ending August 31, 2026. One street can read very differently from the whole ZIP code. If you want to know what the numbers look like for your specific block, just reach out. I am happy to take a closer look.