Massachusetts real estate agents are hoping this year’s spring home-buying season sees an uptick in homes coming on the market after several years of high interest rates and a longtime, persistent shortage of housing.
“Sellers are ready to list their homes following the winter lull, leaving buyers in a better position to enter the market,” said Kristen Keegan, president of Massachusetts Association of Realtors, who represents Silver Key Homes Realty. “We are hopefully seeing the start of a positive trend in the Massachusetts housing market, with the increase of new listings giving reason for optimism that a spike in closed sales is on the horizon.”
In real estate, numbers often tell the story, and the latest data from the Massachusetts Association of Realtors shows a 17.2% year-over-year increase in new listings for condominiums as of March, and a much more modest increase (1%) in listings of single-family homes. It’s the first increase in single-family homes available since December 2025.
That’s the good news for homebuyers. The bad news is that home prices remain high, with the median price for a single family home in March 2026 hitting $655,000, a 4.4% increase over the same month last year. For condos, the median price of $537,000 is up 1.5%.
Actual closed sales are down since March 2025, with a decrease of 2.2% for single-family homes and 1.3% for condominiums.
While the numbers are one indicator, Cassidy Norton, Associate Publisher of The Warren Group, said the housing market is one of the most difficult things to predict because there’s so many factors that go into it.
“Everything is expensive,” she said.
But supply and demand is a major issue, and that’s inextricably tied to the interest rate, which largely determines the mortgage rate, she said.
“The real tricky question is interest rates and what’s going to happen with those, because that can make a very big difference in what your monthly payment is going to be versus just what the purchase price at the house is going to be. And that is very hard to say,” she said.
The Massachusetts housing market already suffers from a lack of supply due to limited land and expensive construction costs. And Norton said relatively high interest rates makes existing homeowners reluctant to sell due to the prospect of higher interest rates on their next home.
“So you’re looking at this sort of golden handcuffs situation where people are loathe to put their houses on the market because they’re going to pick up a more expensive house with a higher interest rate. And that’s not something people take lightly,” she said. But, she adds, “over time, that situation is going to relieve itself because people are just going to need to lift their houses and move for whatever the reason is.”
Efforts to build more housing
There have been several efforts by state and local governments to address the housing shortage are ongoing. The MBTA Communities Act, which aims to increase density near public transportation, is one such program.
Accessory Dwelling Units, or ADUs, is another way state and local governments are looking to add more housing by changing local zoning regulations that restrict secondary homes on existing residential properties.
In 2024, the State passed the Affordable Home Act, outlining a plan to build 22,000 new units per year to reach 225,000 new units by 2035.
But according to the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, the state is still falling short, averaging 15,000 annual permits since 2013.
The MTF proposed a new plan last week that identifies barriers to housing, and suggests a pilot program in downtown Boston and Gateway Cities to spur housing production be lifting those barriers.
“Think affordability set-aside, or some of our climate or energy standards that in some cases make it challenging to build housing,” said Doug Howgate, president of the MTF. “So it’s trying to come up with a proof of concept of saying, if we combine a bunch of different tools at our disposal in one place, can we make a real difference in places where we know we really need new housing.”
But in the near-term, Sarah Gustafson, past president of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, said this spring there’s an “overall sense of more listings coming on and that should bring relief for some buyers.”
For sellers, she said, prices are holding firm, and that means more homes may come on the market soon.
“You may be seeing a little more inventory than you’ve seen previously, and a bit of a downward pressure on the prices,” she said.
