South Coast home market: mortgage rates dip to 7.32% as sellers cut prices on 77 homes
New Bedford and Fall River had the most homes for sale and the most price cuts. Marion had the highest single-family asking prices, and its listings had been up the longest.
SOUTH COAST Sellers across the South Coast cut asking prices on 77 homes in the past week, and the average rate on a 30-year mortgage eased. Freddie Mac put the national average at 7.32% on Thursday, down from 7.40% the week before and its first weekly decline since Aug. 20.
On Friday morning, 853 homes were listed for sale on both Redfin and Movoto in the 15 towns SC360 covers, up from 845 on Tuesday. Sellers put 49 of them on the market from Monday through Thursday. The median asking price for a single-family home was $627,450, or about $355 a square foot, and the typical listing had been up for 49 days.
What the rate means for a monthly payment
A buyer putting 20% down on a single-family home at the regional median asking price would borrow $501,960. At 7.32% over 30 years, principal and interest come to about $3,448 a month, $27 less than at last week's rate and about $377 more than at the 6.19% average of a year ago. Each $100,000 borrowed costs about $687 a month at this week's rate, and property taxes and insurance come on top of that.
The 15-year fixed rate averaged 6.68%, down from 6.71%, which puts the same loan at about $4,422 a month. Freddie Mac said the decline offered "some relief to prospective homebuyers." The 30-year rate rose six weeks in a row from 6.66% on Aug. 27 to 7.40% on Oct. 8 and held there Oct. 15.
Price cuts and older listings
Fall River had 22 of the week's price cuts and New Bedford had 20, with Wareham next at eight. The median cut was $14,400, about 2.6% of the earlier asking price. Of the 853 listings on the market Friday, 414 showed a price cut as their most recent change.
In all, 243 listings, nearly three in ten, had been on the market for 90 days or more, and 54 of those had been listed for at least 180 days.
Town by town
Fall River had the most homes for sale, 197, including 57 two- to four-family houses and 74 single-family homes. Its single-family median asking price was $499,000, and at $271 a square foot it was the lowest per-foot price in the region. New Bedford had 178 listings, the most new ones this week with 11, and the lowest single-family median at $449,950, or $316 a square foot, across 108 houses. The two cities account for 46 of the region's 69 single-family listings under $400,000.
Asking prices in both cities sit above recent sale prices. The Massachusetts Association of Realtors' latest town figures, for September, put the median single-family sale price at $440,000 in New Bedford and $417,000 in Fall River.
Marion had the highest single-family median asking price, $1,099,500 across 32 houses, or $474 a square foot, and its listings had been up the longest, a median of 92 days. Mattapoisett followed at $949,000 with a 72-day median. In Westport, where all 45 listings were single-family homes, the median ask was $849,900 and the median listing was 36 days old. Westport also had the most houses priced at $1 million or more, 18, one more than Marion.
Dartmouth had 52 listings and a single-family median of $699,900, Fairhaven had 33 at $640,000 and Acushnet had 18 at $687,000. Wareham, with 82 listings, had the most of any town outside the two cities, a single-family median of $599,000 and eight price cuts in the past week. Rochester's 14 single-family listings had a median ask of $751,950.
In Dighton the single-family median was $787,450, and in Freetown it was $759,900. Rehoboth's median was $749,000, Swansea's $594,888 and Somerset's $549,000. Somerset's 22 listings had the shortest median time on the market, about a month, while Rehoboth had 15 single-family houses priced at $1 million or more and no price cuts in the past week.
The top and bottom of the market
The priciest single-family listing in the region was a four-bedroom house in Dartmouth at $4.995 million, followed by a five-bedroom house in Wareham at $4.25 million and a seven-bedroom house in Mattapoisett at $3.699 million. A Fall River multifamily building with five or more units carried the highest price of any listing, $5.88 million.
At the other end, a two-bedroom manufactured home in Wareham was listed at $69,900, and the least expensive single-family house was a two-bedroom, 640-square-foot home in Wareham at $179,900. The lowest asks in the two cities were for two-bedroom condos, at $165,000 in Fall River and $174,900 in New Bedford.
Taxes and rents
Rochester is the only one of the 15 towns with a fiscal 2027 tax rate in the state Department of Revenue's records so far, at $10.62 per $1,000 of value, up from $10.59. Its average single-family tax bill is $6,957, up $212 from last year, on an average single-family value of $655,097.
For renters, Zillow's rent index for September stood at $1,888 a month in Fall River, up 2.4% from a year earlier, and at $1,811 in New Bedford, up 2.7%. The same index put typical rents at $2,649 in Dartmouth and $2,592 in Wareham.
What forecasters expect
Zillow's latest forecast, built on September values, calls for typical home values to rise 2.6% by September 2027 in the Providence metro area, where its data places New Bedford, Fall River, Dartmouth and Somerset, and 1.4% in the Boston metro area, where it places Wareham. Its national forecast for the same period is 1.1%.
The next weekly rate survey comes out at noon Thursday, Oct. 29.
Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.
Notes
Every listing figure comes from SC360's own count of homes for sale on Redfin and Movoto Friday morning, Oct. 23, compared with the same count Tuesday morning; price cuts and new listings are counted by the dates each listing shows. We confirmed the highest single-family ask and the lowest ask on the listing pages. Rates come from Freddie Mac's Oct. 22 survey, the September sale prices from the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, tax figures from the state Department of Revenue and rents and the forecast from Zillow's public data. We read them on Oct. 23. Payment figures are our arithmetic on principal and interest only. We checked each date and weekday against a calendar. No street addresses, owners or brokerages are named. Not heard: no comment was sought for this data story.
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 (6)
- Primary Mortgage Market Survey (Mortgage Rates)Freddie Mac. U.S. weekly averages as of Oct. 22, 2026: 30-year fixed 7.32% (7.40% a week earlier, 6.19% a year earlier), 15-year fixed 6.68% (6.71% a week earlier); weekly history since August from the survey's history file. Read Oct. 23, 2026.
- Homes for sale in the 15 South Coast towns, Redfin and Movoto listing searchesSC360's count of active listings that Redfin and Movoto both show at the same asking price, read 5:33 to 5:36 a.m. Oct. 23, 2026, compared with the same count at 5:34 a.m. Oct. 20; asking prices, square footage, list dates, days on market and price changes. Read Oct. 23, 2026.
- September 2026, Single-Family Properties, by townMassachusetts Association of Realtors via ShowingTime, linked from marealtor.com/market-data. Median single-family sale prices for New Bedford and Fall River. Read Oct. 23, 2026.
- Tax rates by classMassachusetts Department of Revenue, Division of Local Services. Fiscal 2026 and 2027 residential rates for the 15 towns; only Rochester shows a fiscal 2027 rate. Read Oct. 23, 2026.
- Average single-family tax billMassachusetts Department of Revenue, Division of Local Services. Rochester's fiscal 2027 and 2026 average single-family value and bill. Read Oct. 23, 2026.
- Zillow Research data: Zillow Observed Rent Index and Zillow Home Value ForecastZillow. September 2026 rent index by city and the metro home value forecast from a Sept. 30, 2026, base (files updated Oct. 16, 2026). Read Oct. 23, 2026.