Published September 23, 2026 in Market Update

Prices eased, but good homes still had leverage

By Lais F

Real estate, Newburyport

The headline number is this: Listing Leads put the median sale price in ZIP 01950 at $947,000 for the three months ending July 31, 2026. That is down 4.1% from the same stretch a year before. Prices dipped. But the rest of the story is more interesting.

A lower median does not mean sellers lost their edge. Listing Leads counted 45% of homes selling above list price in that same period. That share was up 8 points from a year before. Buyers were still competing for the homes they wanted.

Sellers got more than they asked

Listing Leads put the average sale-to-list ratio at 101.1%, up 1.1 points from the year before. Sellers, on average, got more than they listed for. Homes sat for a median of just 20 days. That is only one day longer than the same period in 2025. The market slowed, but barely.

More homes came to market

Listing Leads counted 110 new listings in ZIP 01950 during those three months. That is up 14.6% from a year before. More sellers stepped in. Homes for sale rose 5.2% to 61 active listings. Supply is still tight at 2.3 months, up just 0.1 months from a year ago. For context, most agents consider six months a balanced market.

Listing Leads recorded 80 homes sold, down just 1.2% from a year before. Pending sales came in at 75, down 6.3%. Some buyers pulled back. But 57.3% of homes that did sell went under contract within two weeks of listing. That is still more than half, even though it slipped 4 points from a year ago.

What the national picture adds

Nationally, Realtor.com reported mortgage rates averaged 6.67% in August 2026. That is a real weight on affordability. Realtor.com also found that 20.4% of listings saw a price cut in August across the country. Newburyport's 4.1% price dip fits that pattern. The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported U.S. home prices rose 2.1% year over year between the second quarter of 2025 and the second quarter of 2026. Newburyport moved in the opposite direction, but only modestly.

One more thing worth knowing: these numbers cover all of ZIP 01950. One street can read very differently from the whole ZIP. A home on a quiet side street near the water may see something different from one on a busier corridor. The zip code tells you the direction. Your street tells you the distance.