New Bedford home sales rise 13% while the median price holds flat
The median sale price was essentially even with a year earlier, at $464,779. More homes were for sale, and fewer sold above the asking price.
NEW BEDFORD More homes changed hands in New Bedford this summer than a year ago, but prices held still. Redfin, a national real estate brokerage, counted 187 sales in the city from July to September, up 13% from 165 in the same three months of 2025. The median sale price was $464,779, essentially even with $465,000 a year earlier.
Redfin reports town figures in three-month windows, so these numbers compare July to September 2026 with the same months of 2025. It counts only sales made through listing services, so private sales are not included.
What changed was the competition. Redfin found that 45.7% of homes sold for more than their asking price, down from 53.9% a year earlier, while the number of homes for sale rose by about a fifth. A buyer this summer faced less bidding than a year ago, and an owner selling faced more homes competing with theirs.
More homes, less bidding
Redfin counted 373 homes for sale in the city at some point from July to September, up 21% from 309, and 177 still for sale at the end of September, up from 124. The number newly put up for sale barely changed, at 225 compared with 222, so most of the increase came from homes carried over from earlier months.
Homes still sold at a fairly quick pace. The median home spent 28 days on the market, three days longer than a year earlier. Homes sold on average for 100.3% of their list price, down from 101.3%, and 36% came off the market within two weeks of being listed, down from 43.7%. That left 2.9 months of supply, up from 2.3, by Redfin's measure.
Redfin's median price per square foot rose 9.6%, to $290.40 from $265.07, even as the median price stayed flat. When the two measures split that way, it generally means the homes that sold were smaller, on the whole, than those sold a year earlier. The latest median was the lowest in any of Redfin's three-month windows since the one ending in March, when it was $459,900.
Rates and the monthly payment
The average 30-year fixed rate was 7.40% in Freddie Mac's survey for the week of Oct. 15, up from 6.27% a year earlier. It rose six weeks in a row after Aug. 27, when it stood at 6.66%, then held steady.
On New Bedford's median price, with 20% down, principal and interest at 7.40% come to about $2,574 a month, by our arithmetic. That is $280 more than the $2,294 the same loan would cost at last year's rate. Taxes and insurance are extra.
New Bedford's median was about $93,000 below Bristol County's September median of $557,752, which was up 1.4% from a year earlier, according to Redfin. The county figure covers a single month, so the comparison is not exact. Zillow's home value index, an estimate of a typical home's value rather than a measure of sales, put New Bedford at $439,098 in September, up 3.4% over the year.
Taxes, zoning and rents
The average single-family tax bill in New Bedford rose to $4,653 for fiscal 2026, up $161, or 3.6%, from $4,492 in fiscal 2025, state Department of Revenue figures show. That is within $2 of Fall River's average bill of $4,651. New Bedford's bill reflects an average single-family assessment of $424,920 and a residential rate of $10.95 per $1,000 of value. The statewide average bill was $8,113.
Under the state's MBTA Communities law, New Bedford is a commuter rail community that must zone for at least 6,688 multifamily homes. The Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities listed the city as compliant as of Aug. 31, after a state pre-adoption review and adoption of the required zoning.
Zillow's observed rent index for New Bedford was $1,811 in September, up 2.7% from a year earlier. About 60% of the city's households rent, according to Census Bureau American Community Survey estimates for 2020 to 2024, and 50.5% of renters spend 30% or more of their income on rent. The survey's median rent was $1,137, and its median home was built in 1938.
Label: Reported by us, from public housing market data and records.
How we verified this
Every figure in this story comes from the public data sets linked above, read Oct. 18, 2026, and the monthly payment estimates are our own arithmetic on Redfin's median price and Freddie Mac's rates.
Corrections
No corrections to this story. If something here is wrong, tell us. Every correction is dated on the story and listed in our public log.
Sources (9)
- Redfin Data Center, city and county housing market data (updated Oct. 7, 2026)New Bedford median sale price, sales, days on market, homes for sale, new homes for sale, months of supply, sale-to-list, share sold above list, share off market in two weeks and price per square foot for July to September 2026 and 2025, and the rolling medians since the window ending January 2026; Bristol County figures for September 2026. Read Oct. 18, 2026.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, week of Oct. 15, 202630-year fixed rate of 7.40%, year-earlier rate of 6.27% (Oct. 16, 2025) and weekly rates since Aug. 27. Read Oct. 18, 2026.
- Zillow Research data, Zillow Home Value Index and Zillow Observed Rent Index, September 2026New Bedford home value index of $439,098 and rent index of $1,811, with year-over-year changes. Read Oct. 18, 2026.
- Massachusetts Department of Revenue, Division of Local Services, average single-family tax bill, fiscal 2026 (data current as of Oct. 18, 2026)New Bedford average single-family bill of $4,653 in fiscal 2026 and $4,492 in fiscal 2025, average single-family value of $424,920; Fall River average bill of $4,651. Read Oct. 18, 2026.
- Massachusetts Department of Revenue, Division of Local Services, tax rates by class, fiscal 2026Residential rate of $10.95 per $1,000. Read Oct. 18, 2026.
- FY2026 statewide average single-family tax bill, Massachusetts Department of Revenue (published Feb. 19, 2026)Statewide average single-family bill of $8,113. Read Oct. 18, 2026.
- Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, MBTA Communities compliance status sheet as of Aug. 31, 2026New Bedford listed as compliant, pre-adoption review, zoning adopted. Read Oct. 18, 2026.
- Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, MBTA Communities categories and capacity calculations (June 2025)Commuter rail category and minimum multifamily capacity of 6,688 units. Read Oct. 18, 2026.
- Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020 to 2024 five-year estimates, summary fileOccupied and owner-occupied homes (renter share), median rent of $1,137, median year built and the share of renters paying 30% or more of income on rent. Read Oct. 18, 2026.