Published October 18, 2026 in Market Update

Chelmsford / Westford still moved more homes with little extra supply

By Patrick & Alana Scanlon

Real estate, Chelmsford / Westford

Realtor.com reported that mortgage rates climbed above 7% for the first time since January 2025. Nationally, that slowed things down. Here it did not. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 214 homes sold across Chelmsford and Westford in the three months ending August 31, 2026. That is up 12% from the same stretch a year before.

Pending sales tell the same story. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 209 homes under contract across the three ZIPs, up 17.4% year over year. Buyers signed contracts even as borrowing got harder. That is the clearest sign demand is holding.

Supply barely budged. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 89 homes for sale across the three ZIPs, down 2.2% from a year ago. New listings rose 11%, but buyers absorbed them. More homes came to market and more sold. That left the shelf nearly as bare as before.

What each ZIP showed

The three ZIPs that make up this market each told a slightly different story. Here is what the Real Estate Data Aggregator measured for the three months ending August 31, 2026.

01824: Chelmsford's main ZIP

The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 87 homes sold in ZIP 01824, up 2.4% from a year before. The median sale price was $722,000, up 1.7%. Homes sat a median of 21 days, three days longer than a year ago. Still, 102.4% of list price on average, and 67.8% of homes sold above list. Those two numbers say buyers are still competing, even if the edge softened a little.

01863: North Chelmsford

North Chelmsford has its own village feel, and its numbers moved differently. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 37 homes sold in ZIP 01863, up 8.8%. The median sale price dropped to $480,000, down 16.2%. That is a real shift, and it is worth understanding before you price anything here. Homes for sale jumped 141.7%, to 29 active listings. More supply, a softer price, and fewer homes going under contract in the first two weeks (46%, down 40.5 points). That is a market asking for sharper pricing, not a market that stopped working.

01886: Westford

Westford was the tightest of the three. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 90 homes sold in ZIP 01886, up 25% from a year before. Pending sales hit 88, up 35.4%. Months of supply sat at just 1 month, down 1.1 months from a year ago. The median sale price was $863,064, down 8.3%. More homes sold at a lower median, which often means the mix shifted, not that prices collapsed across the board. Homes for sale fell 40.8%, so buyers had less to choose from and still showed up.

The national picture behind these numbers

Nationally, Realtor.com reported that 20.8% of listings took a price cut in September 2026, the highest share since October 2022. Active listings topped 1.16 million homes nationally. That is a softer national mood. CNBC reported that Fannie Mae forecasts the 30-year fixed rate at 7.4% in the fourth quarter of 2026 and 7.5% through 2027. CNBC also reported that pending home sales were down 8.5% year over year nationally in September, according to Zillow. Chelmsford and Westford did not follow that script, at least not through August 31, 2026. The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported U.S. house prices up 2.6% from July 2025 to July 2026. Local prices moved in their own directions by ZIP.

What this means if you own here

Demand did not disappear when rates crossed 7%. That matters. It means the buyers who are active right now are serious. They qualified at a harder number and kept going. For sellers, that is a real pool of buyers. For owners who are not selling yet, it means your equity did not evaporate with the rate news.

The softening is real too. Fewer homes are going above list in 01863. Days on market ticked up in 01824. The gap between ZIPs is wide enough that a strategy built for one street may not fit the next. Price, condition and timing still decide the outcome.