The U.S. housing market slump dragged into its fourth year in 2025 as sales remained stuck at a 30-year low with rising home prices and elevated mortgage rates keeping many prospective home shoppers out of the market.

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes totaled 4.06 million last year, essentially flat versus 2024 when sales sank to the lowest level since 1995, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday. Without rounding the figures, sales last year were slightly lower than in 2024.

All told, existing U.S. home sales have declined on annual basis since 2022.

The median national home price for 2025 rose 1.7% to $414,400, the NAR said.

Sales have been stuck close to a 4-million annual pace now going back to 2023. That’s well short of the 5.2-million annual pace that’s historically been the norm.

“2025 was another tough year for homebuyers, marked by record-high home prices and historically low home sales,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “However, in the fourth quarter, conditions began improving, with lower mortgage rates and slower home price growth.”

The U.S. housing market has been in a sales slump dating back to 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. The combination of higher mortgage rates, years of skyrocketing home prices and a chronic shortage of homes nationally following more than a decade of below-average home construction have left many aspiring homeowners priced out of the market.

Affordability remains a challenge for many, especially first-time buyers who don’t have equity from an existing home to put toward a new home purchase. Uncertainty over the economy and job market are also keeping many would-be buyers on the sidelines.

The sales slowdown means more homes are staying on the market longer.

There were 1.18 million unsold homes at the end of December, a 3.5% increase from a year earlier, NAR said. That’s still well short of the roughly 2 million homes for sale that was typical before the COVID-19 pandemic.