Westchester Home Prices Rose Even as Rates Topped 7%

By Ted Holmes

Edward “Ted” Holmes is a Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker and founder of The Holmes Team at William Raveis Real Estate, serving Chappaqua and Northern Westchester County, NY. With 25 years licensed, 456 career transactions, and consistent top-ranking production statewide, he is a recognized expert in residential, luxury, and commercial real estate.

Mortgage rates crossed back above 7% this fall, the first time since early 2025, and the pressure did not stop there. Affordability stayed tight, and fresh uncertainty overseas piled on.

What that combination did not do was shake our local market. Chappaqua and Northern Westchester have held steady, and third quarter numbers, measured over the 12 months ending September 2026 against the prior year, show it.

The fundamentals are holding. The clearest sign is how little sales volume changed, with 4,570 single-family homes closed countywide over the past year down from 4,632 the year before, a difference of roughly 1%.

Prices moved the other way, with the median up about 9%, from $975,000 to near $1,065,000. The engine behind both is a persistent shortage of homes. Only 843 were listed countywide at the end of September, down from 875, and with months of supply at 2.2 and an average of 36 days to sell, there simply are not enough homes to meet the buyers who want them.

Where rates went, and why. Freddie Mac has the average 30-year fixed above 7% in early October, compared with about 6.3% a year earlier. What drives that figure is not the Federal Reserve but the 10-year Treasury bond that mortgages track. Three forces lifted that bond’s yield this fall: inflation refusing to cool, oil climbing on renewed Middle East conflict, and the Fed raising short-term rates in September.

For a buyer, the abstraction becomes concrete fast. On a median-priced home here with 20% down, that one-point increase adds roughly $500 a month to your principal and interest payment compared to a year ago, and that figure alone has sidelined some shoppers.

What the forecasts say. Fannie Mae and the Mortgage Bankers Association both point toward rates settling back into the 6% range in the months ahead, modest relief rather than a collapse. And measured against fifty years of history, during which the 30-year fixed averaged closer to 7.7%, today’s rates look far less unusual than recent memory makes them feel.

For buyers, timing is the real risk. Prices are up, inventory is thin, and homes are still selling in about five weeks, so none of the core conditions reward sitting still. The real danger is what happens when rates finally ease, because the buyers who stepped back will return together and reignite the competition they stepped away from. You can refinance a high rate later, but the purchase price is fixed the day you sign.

For sellers, the buyers are serious. The ones shopping now are qualified and committed rather than casual browsers, and homes that are priced and presented with care are still closing, frequently against a thinner field of competing listings than a peak season would bring. Whether it pays to invest in updates first depends on your price point and the buyers it attracts.

Remember that the county averages only tell part of the story. Westchester isn’t one market, but many, and individual towns, neighborhoods, and price brackets each move on their own.

Pinning down what a specific Chappaqua or Northern Westchester home is worth today takes a short conversation, not a guess. Reach out anytime at 914-548-6179 or ted.holmes@raveis.com, or visit blog.theholmesteamny.com. I’ll walk you through your situation.