Published October 25, 2026 in Market Update

Mid Cape still has more buyers than listings

By Liza Elmstrom

Real estate, Mid Cape

Here is the number that tells the whole story. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 411 pending sales across Mid Cape in the three months ending August 31, 2026. Only 290 homes were for sale in that same stretch. More deals in the pipeline than homes on the shelf. That is not what most of the country looks like right now.

Nationally, Realtor.com reported active listings topped 1.16 million homes in September 2026. Supply is climbing in most places. Mid Cape is not most places. Fewer listings here, more buyers waiting.

How tight is supply, town by town?

The Real Estate Data Aggregator breaks it down by ZIP. Most areas sit under 2.5 months of supply. West Harwich is the one outlier at 4.2 months. Every other ZIP is well below that.

Low supply alone does not mean every home sells fast. It means the ones priced right do. That shows up clearly in the speed numbers.

How fast are homes going under contract?

The Real Estate Data Aggregator tracks what share of homes went under contract within two weeks of listing. In West Yarmouth, that was 57.5% in the three months ending August 31, 2026, up 26.7 points from a year before. Brewster hit 49.2%, up 28.2 points. Harwich Port came in at 46.2%, up 22.2 points. These are real jumps.

Not every town moved that quickly though. West Harwich came in at 18.2%. Dennis Port at 28.6%. Pricing matters more in those spots. A home that sits is almost always a pricing story.

What did homes actually sell for?

Median prices moved in different directions by town. Dennis saw a 3.4% dip to $874,500. Harwich Port dropped 47.1% to $592,500, though that kind of swing in a small market usually reflects a change in what sold, not the market falling apart. Meanwhile West Harwich jumped 25.1% to $806,500 and West Yarmouth climbed 13% to $555,000. All figures are from the Real Estate Data Aggregator for the three months ending August 31, 2026.

Notice how tight the sale-to-list ratios are. Brewster and West Harwich both hit at or above 100%. That means buyers paid asking price or more. Even the lower ratios, like Dennis at 97.4%, are not far off. Sellers here are not giving much away.

The national backdrop

Nationally, Realtor.com reported mortgage rates climbed above 7% for the first time since January 2025. And 20.8% of listings nationally took a price cut in September, the highest share since October 2022. Mid Cape is not immune to those pressures. But with supply this low here, the math is different.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported U.S. house prices rose 2.6% from July 2025 to July 2026. Mid Cape towns like West Yarmouth (up 13%), Harwich (up 10.6%) and South Dennis (up 9.5%) outpaced that national figure by a wide margin.

A few things worth knowing