Published October 11, 2026 in Market Update

Sales rose in Chelmsford / Westford even with rates at 7.40%

By Patrick & Alana Scanlon

Real estate, Chelmsford / Westford

The headline number is this: demand held up. Freddie Mac put the 30-year fixed rate at 7.40% on October 8, 2026. Nationally, CNBC reported that purchase applications were 15% lower than the same week a year ago. Here, the Real Estate Data Aggregator still counted 214 sales in the three months ending August 31, 2026. That is up 12% from the same months of 2025. Rates went up. Sales went up anyway.

Pending sales tell you where the market is heading, not where it has been. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 209 pending sales across Chelmsford and Westford in those same three months, up 17.4% from a year before. Buyers are still signing contracts. That matters if you are thinking about timing a sale.

What the rate picture looks like right now

Freddie Mac averaged the 30-year fixed rate at 7.40% as of October 8, 2026. The 15-year fixed came in at 6.73%, also per Freddie Mac. Realtor.com reported rates crossed back above 7% for the first time since January 2025. Nationally, CNBC reported purchase applications down 2% for the week. That is the broader picture. Chelmsford and Westford did not follow it, at least not in the three months ending August 31, 2026.

The three ZIP codes are not the same market

These numbers are worth reading side by side. ZIP 01824 (most of Chelmsford) and ZIP 01886 (Westford) moved differently from ZIP 01863 (North Chelmsford). All three are in the same three months ending August 31, 2026, per the Real Estate Data Aggregator.

Westford (01886): more sales, less supply

The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 90 sales in ZIP 01886 in the three months ending August 31, 2026. That is up 25% from a year before. Homes for sale there fell 40.8% over the same stretch. Supply tightened while sales jumped. Pending sales in 01886 rose 35.4%, the biggest gain of any ZIP here. More than half of homes, 51.1%, sold above list price, up 2.5 points from 2025.

The median sale price in 01886 came in at $863,064, down 8.3% from a year before. More sales at a lower median can happen when the mix shifts: more smaller homes or condos closing, not necessarily prices falling on any one type of home. One street can read very differently from the ZIP as a whole.

Chelmsford (01824): steady, with a little more breathing room

The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 87 sales in ZIP 01824, up 2.4% from a year before. The median sale price was $722,000, up 1.7%. Homes sold in a median of 21 days, 3 days longer than a year ago. That extra time is real, but 21 days is still quick. Homes in 01824 averaged 102.4% of list price. Nearly 68% sold above list. Both figures slipped a little from 2025, but both are still firmly in seller territory.

North Chelmsford (01863): more inventory, more time, lower price

ZIP 01863 tells a different story. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 37 sales there, up 8.8% from a year before. But homes for sale jumped 141.7%. Months of supply rose 1.3 months to 2.4 months. The median sale price fell 16.2% to $480,000. The share of homes that went under contract within two weeks dropped 40.5 points to 46%. That is a meaningful shift. More choices for buyers, more competition for sellers.

North Chelmsford has its own village identity, separate from the main Chelmsford market. These numbers reflect that. Do not read 01863 as a preview of what 01824 will do.

What the national picture adds

Nationally, Realtor.com reported that 20.8% of listings took a price cut in September 2026, the highest share since October 2022. Active listings nationally topped 1.16 million, per Realtor.com. The Federal Housing Finance Agency put U.S. home prices up 2.6% from July 2025 to July 2026. Chelmsford and Westford are not immune to national trends, but the local numbers through August 31, 2026 have not followed the national softening, at least not yet.