Published October 2, 2026 in Market Update

Higher mortgage rates have not stopped local homes from moving

By Lena Pesso

Real estate, Primary market

If you've been watching mortgage rates, you already know the number stings a little. Freddie Mac put the average 30-year fixed rate at 7.28% as of October 1, 2026. That's real payment pressure, and it's worth naming out loud. What the rate doesn't tell you is how fast homes here are actually moving.

The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 873 homes sold across the primary market in the three months ending July 31, 2026. Pending sales came in at 913 over the same period. Buyers are still making decisions.

How fast homes are moving, ZIP by ZIP

Days on market is the number that tells you how long a home sat before a buyer signed. It measures the median, meaning half of homes sold faster, half slower. Here is where each ZIP code landed for the three months ending July 31, 2026, according to the Real Estate Data Aggregator.

Essex Fells (07021) is its own story. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted just 5 homes sold there in the three months ending July 31, 2026, with a median of 86 days on market. With that few closings, one or two slower sales can move the median a lot. The other signals, like a 109.1% sale-to-list ratio, suggest the underlying market is still firm.

What buyers are actually paying versus list price

Sale-to-list ratio measures what a home sold for as a share of its asking price. A number above 100% doesn't mean buyers overpaid. In these towns, sellers often price below expected value on purpose, to draw multiple offers. The Real Estate Data Aggregator shows every ZIP in this market came in above 100% for the three months ending July 31, 2026.

Montclair (07042) stood out at 123.7%, with 90.2% of homes selling above list price. That figure reflects how Montclair is priced, not just how buyers feel. A $400,000 condo and a $5 million Estate Section home both count as Montclair in the data, so a street-level read matters more than the ZIP-wide number here.

The rate picture, and what it means here

Freddie Mac reported the 30-year fixed rate at 7.28% and the 15-year at 6.60% as of October 1, 2026. Realtor.com noted that rates crossed 7% in late September for the first time since January 2025, and that rates rose nearly 40 basis points over the four weeks before that. That's a real shift in monthly payment math for buyers.

Nationally, the National Association of Realtors reported existing-home sales down 2.0% in August 2026, and months of supply at 4.9 months, the highest level in over ten years. Realtor.com also showed homes under contract down 4.1% year over year across the country.

This market is reading differently. Pending sales here totaled 913 in the three months ending July 31, 2026, per the Real Estate Data Aggregator. The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported U.S. house prices up 2.1% year over year through the second quarter of 2026. Local prices in most of these ZIPs moved well above that.

Where prices landed, and what changed year over year

Median sale price is the middle closing price in a given period. It's a useful starting point, but in thinner markets like Millburn (07041) or Summit (07901), a handful of high-end closings can move it meaningfully. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted only 22 sales in 07041 for this period, so read that median alongside days on market and sale-to-list for a fuller picture.

A few ZIPs showed a dip in median price year over year. Caldwell (07006) and Verona (07044) each came in down 2.5%. East Hanover (07936) was down 5.1%. In each case, the sale-to-list ratio stayed well above 100% and days on market shortened, which suggests the mix of homes that closed shifted, not that values fell.

How quickly homes went under contract

This figure measures the share of homes that went under contract within two weeks of listing. It's one of the cleaner signals in a market like this, because it's less affected by a few outlier sales. The Real Estate Data Aggregator tracked it for each ZIP for the three months ending July 31, 2026.

Short Hills (07078) had 54.8% of homes under contract within two weeks, up 22.1 points from the same period last year. Summit (07901) was close behind at 49.2%, up 5.2 points. Livingston (07039) came in at 23.2%, down 26.4 points year over year. That's the honest tradeoff to name: more homes listed in Livingston this period, and not all of them moved at the same pace.

Supply is still tight, even with more listings coming in

Months of supply measures how long it would take to sell every home currently listed, at the current pace of sales. Under three months generally favors sellers. The Real Estate Data Aggregator shows most ZIPs here well under that line.

The National Association of Realtors put national months of supply at 4.9 months, the highest level in over ten years. Every ZIP in this market came in well below that. The tightest was Summit (07901) at 0.9 months, with inventory down 22.2% from a year ago.

Livingston (07039) and Millburn (07041) both sat at 2.8 months, the highest in the market. More supply entered both ZIPs this period: new listings in Livingston rose 11.8% and homes for sale rose 15.9% year over year. That's worth knowing if you're pricing a home there right now.