January 2026 Massachusetts Housing Report

Massachusetts opened 2026 with fewer homes selling and fewer homes to sell — and the second of those fell faster than the first.

Single-family sales declined in every county Bean Group serves. Essex County closed 223 sales, down 11.2%. Middlesex fell 7.9%, Norfolk 14.2%, Suffolk 15.0%, Worcester 6.8%. Statewide, all fourteen counties together produced 2,177 single-family closings.

But inventory fell harder still. Essex was down 21.7%, Norfolk 12.5%, Suffolk 18.2%. Every county in the region carried less than one and a half months of supply.

The short version

• Sales fell in all five counties, between 6.8% and 15.0%
• Inventory fell faster than sales — Essex down 21.7%, Suffolk down 18.2%
• Months supply 1.3 or lower everywhere; Essex and Middlesex at 0.9
• Prices mostly held: Norfolk up 7.5%, Worcester up 8.9%, Middlesex down 0.9%
• Pending sales rose in four of five counties — the market was busier than closings suggested

What happened across the region

The pattern was consistent enough to be a single story. Buyers were active — pending sales rose in Essex (+5.4%), Middlesex (+11.8%), Suffolk (+10.6%) and Worcester (+20.3%) — but there was very little to buy. New listings fell in all five counties, by as much as 18.6% in Essex and 18.2% in Suffolk.

When supply contracts faster than demand, sales fall without prices falling. That is what January produced. The Norfolk median rose 7.5% to $805,000. Worcester rose 8.9% to $490,000. Only Middlesex and Suffolk slipped, and Suffolk's single-family market is small enough that its 11.3% decline says less than it appears to.

Months supply is the number that captures it. Essex and Middlesex both sat at 0.9 months. A balanced market is generally reckoned at five to six. Massachusetts began 2026 with roughly a sixth of that.

County by county

Essex County — the North Shore and Merrimack Valley — closed 223 single-family sales, down 11.2%, at a median of $713,000, up 2.8%. Homes took 48 days to sell, up from 40. Inventory fell 21.7% to 324 homes, the sharpest contraction in the region. Essex condos closed 110 sales at a median of $454,950, essentially flat.

Middlesex County — the largest market in the state — closed 398 sales, down 7.9%, at a median of $837,500, down 0.9%. Inventory fell 10.0%. Pending sales rose 11.8%, pointing to a stronger February. Middlesex condos were the region's bright spot on price: a median of $729,000, up 9.6%.

Norfolk County posted a median of $805,000, up 7.5% — the region's second-largest gain after Worcester — on 223 sales, down 14.2%. Fewer homes sold, for more money each. Inventory fell 12.5%.

Suffolk County closed 51 single-family sales, down 15.0%. Suffolk is a condominium market — 203 condo sales against 51 houses — so its single-family figures move sharply on small numbers and should be read with that in mind. The condo median held at $725,000.

Worcester County closed 342 sales, down 6.8%, at a median of $490,000, up 8.9%. It remains the most affordable of the five by a wide margin. Pending sales rose 20.3%, the strongest forward signal in the region.

What this means if you're buying

January is the thinnest month of the year and 2026 was thinner than most. With Essex at 324 homes for sale and Suffolk at 117, the practical problem was not competition so much as absence — there was very little to look at.

The counties diverge more than the regional summary suggests. Worcester's $490,000 median against Middlesex's $837,500 is a $347,500 gap inside one commuting region. If your search is defined by budget rather than a specific town, that spread is the most useful number in this report.

What this means if you're selling

A market at 0.9 months of supply is as favourable a backdrop as sellers get. The caution is that sellers received between 96.9% and 97.9% of original list price — below asking in every county. Buyers were scarce enough in January that pricing still had to be right.

Pending sales rising while closings fell means February and March closings should recover. If you were considering listing, the data argued for doing it before that supply arrived.

About this data

Figures are from the Massachusetts Association of REALTORS® Local Market Update for January 2026, drawn from the Berkshire County MLS, Cape Cod & Islands Association of REALTORS®, Inc. and MLS Property Information Network, Inc. Data provided by MAR, © ShowingTime Plus, LLC.

"Cumulative Days on Market Until Sale" measures days from listing to sale. "Percent of Original List Price Received" divides sale price by the original list price — note this differs from the New Hampshire reports, which use the most recent list price, so the two figures are not directly comparable. "Median sales price" does not account for seller concessions.

MAR notes that activity for one month can look extreme in smaller counties due to sample size. Suffolk County single-family figures in particular rest on a small number of transactions.