South Coast home market: mortgage rates fall to 7.24% as homes for sale climb to 873

SOUTH COAST The average rate on a 30-year mortgage fell for the second week in a row, to 7.24%, and the number of homes for sale across the South Coast kept growing. Freddie Mac said Thursday that the rate had reached its lowest level this month, down from 7.32% a week earlier and 7.40% two weeks ago.

On Thursday morning, 873 homes were listed for sale on both Redfin and Movoto in the 15 towns SC360 covers, up from 853 last Friday. Sellers put 62 homes on the market from Monday through Wednesday alone. The median asking price for a single-family home was $644,950, or about $355 a square foot, and the typical listing had been up for 50 days.

In all, 88 homes joined the count since last Friday: 75 listed from Friday through Thursday morning and 13 listed earlier that now show the same price on both sites. Another 68 homes counted last Friday were no longer in it. A home drops out when it goes under agreement, comes off the market or no longer shows the same price on both sites, and the listing data does not say which applied.

What the lower rate means for a payment

A buyer putting 20% down on a house at the regional median asking price would borrow $515,960. At 7.24% over 30 years, principal and interest come to about $3,516 a month, $28 less than the same loan at last week's rate and about $366 more than at the 6.17% average of a year ago. Each $100,000 borrowed costs $681.50 a month at this week's rate. Property taxes and insurance come on top of that.

The 15-year fixed rate averaged 6.60%, down from 6.68%. Freddie Mac said the drop was "modestly boosting purchasing power for prospective buyers." The 30-year rate had climbed six weeks in a row from late August to 7.40% on Oct. 8 and held there Oct. 15.

Price cuts

Sellers cut asking prices on 62 homes from last Friday through Thursday morning, fewer than the 77 cuts in the week before. The median cut was $10,000, about 3% of the earlier price. Fall River had 16 of them, New Bedford 13 and Wareham five.

The largest came in Westport, where a three-bedroom house was cut by $325,000 on Wednesday to $1.95 million. In Rehoboth a three-bedroom house dropped $146,000 to $1,049,000 on Monday. In Rochester, three two-bedroom condos of 2,700 square feet each, listed since April, were cut by $96,000 to $146,000 on Tuesday, to between $999,000 and $1,049,000.

In all, 250 listings had been on the market for 90 days or more, and 64 of those for at least 180 days.

Town by town

Dartmouth had 55 homes for sale, up from 52, with a single-family median asking price of $709,450. Next door, Fairhaven had the biggest jump in the region, to 41 listings from 33, after sellers listed eight homes from Sunday through Wednesday. Its single-family median was $644,000. Acushnet held at 18 listings, with a median of $679,900.

Rochester went to 27 listings from 21. Six of the new ones were two-bedroom condos of 2,700 square feet each, all listed Tuesday at $949,000 to $999,000. Freetown rose to 29 from 24, and its single-family median stayed at $759,900.

Fall River again had the most homes for sale, 200, including 61 two- to four-family houses and 72 single-family homes. Its single-family median ask was about $510,000, and at $272 a square foot it remained the lowest per-foot price in the region. New Bedford had 182 listings and the lowest single-family median, $449,450, across 110 houses. Of the region's 65 single-family houses priced under $400,000, 34 were in New Bedford and 12 in Fall River.

Marion had the highest single-family median ask, $1,172,000, and the oldest listings, a median of 98 days on the market. A two-bedroom house of 3,794 square feet went on the market there Wednesday at $4 million. Across the region, 101 single-family houses were priced at $1 million or more, up from 94 last week, led by Marion with 18 and Westport with 17.

Mattapoisett's median held at $949,000, and none of its 36 listings had a price cut in the past week. In Westport, where all 44 listings were single-family homes, the median ask was $849,450. Dighton's median was $775,000 and Rehoboth's $739,450.

Wareham's listings fell to 79 from 82, with a median of $599,450, and it still had the lowest ask in the region, $69,900 for a two-bedroom manufactured home, and the least expensive single-family house, a two-bedroom of 640 square feet at $179,900. Swansea dropped to 29 listings from 32, with a median of $579,900. Somerset rose to 24 from 22, and its median stayed at $549,000.

Taxes

No other South Coast town has joined Rochester with a fiscal 2027 tax rate in the state Department of Revenue's records. Rochester's rate is $10.62 per $1,000 of value. The other 14 towns' fiscal 2027 rates were still blank there Thursday.

Freddie Mac's next weekly rate survey comes out at noon Thursday, Nov. 5.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.