Newburyport Is Finally Building Housing. Why Won't It Change What a House Costs?

In August 2026 the median single-family sale price in Newburyport fell 30.2% from a year earlier, to $1,100,000. In the same month, sellers of those homes received 100.6% of their original list price on average. Both figures come from the Massachusetts Association of Realtors' August town report, and both are accurate. A buyer who reads the first number and writes an offer as if they have leverage is likely to lose the house to someone who read the second.

That gap matters more this fall because of the other story running through the city. Ground broke on a new apartment building at the commuter-rail station on September 22. A 212-unit project on the old Kmart site was approved in January. A former school on Milk Street is being converted into rental apartments. It is easy to hear all of this as more supply on the way and softer prices to follow. For a buyer looking at single-family homes or condos, the pipeline points somewhere else.

Thirteen closings make a median, not a trend

The August decline comes from 13 single-family closings, compared with 12 in August 2025. With so few sales, one or two waterfront or in-town historic properties closing in one August and not the next can move the median by hundreds of thousands of dollars. MAR's own report carries a warning that activity for a single month "can sometimes look extreme due to small sample size."

The rest of the August report reads differently from the headline:

• Pending sales: 19 single-family homes went under agreement, up from 9 a year earlier.
• Price received: 100.6% of original list, up from 97.7%.
• Days on market: 33, down from 42.
• Inventory: 38 homes for sale, up 46.2%, or 3.5 months of supply.
• New listings: 22, up from 15.

So more homes came on the market, and they still sold faster and closer to asking than they did last summer. The year-to-date numbers, which rest on a larger sample, show a single-family median of $1,040,000 across 74 closings through August, down 15.0% from 2025's pace. That suggests a shift in which homes are selling. It does not suggest a market where sellers are giving ground. Among the 29 communities in the North Shore REALTORS reporting area, the August single-family median was $750,000 with 2.4 months of supply, so Newburyport still sits well above the region.

Condos are tighter. Inventory fell 13.6% to 19 units in August, leaving 1.9 months of supply, and the year-to-date condo median rose 5.1% to $727,500.

What is actually being built, and what kind of housing it is

The new projects share three features. They are rentals. They sit at the edges of the city, near Route 1 and Storey Avenue. And they are moving on very different schedules.

None of these homes will ever be listed for sale. Newburyport Crossing's third phase adds 23 studios, 30 one-bedrooms, 24 two-bedrooms and 15 three-bedrooms to the 160 apartments MINCO Development Corporation built in the first two phases. The Healey-Driscoll Administration says twenty-three of the new units will be restricted to households earning up to 80% of Area Median Income. Plaza Landing is described as the largest Chapter 40B project in the city's history and the first in more than 20 years. The Town Common reported that it was intended to address the city's "chronic shortage of rental housing."

Rental supply does affect the ownership market, but only at the margins and over time. It can give some renters an option other than buying, and it may let some owners move out of houses they no longer need. Neither shows up in this fall's offers.

A permit is not a building

The Newburyport Crossing groundbreaking shows the timing problem clearly. According to the state's announcement, Phase III received its Chapter 40R Smart Growth District Plan Approval in 2022 and had been "permitted and shovel-ready for years." Construction started only after the Healey-Driscoll Administration's Momentum Fund, managed by MassHousing, joined construction financing from Rockland Trust. MINCO President Louis P. Minicucci Jr. credited that financing with helping the project "overcome construction challenges and costs." Getting from approval to a shovel in the ground took about four years.

Plaza Landing is on a similar track. When the Zoning Board of Appeals approved it, the Newburyport Daily News reported that the developer still had to obtain all necessary permits, and a board member expected "many, many months" before groundbreaking. At the Planning Board's September 2, 2026 meeting, Planning Director Andrew Port said the last update he had received was a start "in the 2026 building season." He also acknowledged that the estimate may be unrealistic because the season was nearly over. We could not confirm whether a building permit has been issued or whether anyone filed an appeal after the January vote.

The project's conditions affect traffic around Storey Avenue. The ZBA required the developer to pay for a new left-turn lane on Low Street into the shopping center, estimated at about half a million dollars. The lane would widen Low Street in front of Hodgie's Two from 36 to 42 feet. Plans also call for a HAWK pedestrian signal to handle a projected 33% increase in Low Street traffic. Buyers looking at homes near Storey Avenue and Low Street should factor in that construction once it is scheduled.

The threshold that changes what gets proposed next

Plaza Landing may matter for a reason that has nothing to do with its own 212 units. Massachusetts Chapter 40B lets developers override much of local zoning in communities where less than 10% of housing counts as affordable. The Town Common reported that approving Plaza Landing "puts the city over the state's 10 percent mark that returns full zoning control to the city."

The official count has not caught up yet. The most recent state Subsidized Housing Inventory we found, dated as of September 30, 2025, lists Newburyport at 783 qualifying units out of 8,300 year-round homes, or 9.43%. No later official figure or city statement confirming the city is above 10% turned up. If and when the state's list shows it, future large projects would be shaped more by Newburyport's own zoning than by 40B. Plaza Landing could end up being the exception that closes that route.

The city's compliance with the MBTA Communities Act works on a separate track. The City Council approved a 40R zoning amendment around the station area by an 11–0 vote on November 25, 2024, and the state listed Newburyport as compliant as of August 27, 2026. None of the three projects above was permitted under that law. Newburyport Crossing used 40R, Plaza Landing used 40B, and the Brown School is going through a local process.

A possible option for owners who can't leave

Of the three, the Brown School is the one whose added rental homes could offer another option to residents who want to downsize. Last fall, while the Plaza Landing hearings were underway, Mayor Sean Reardon wrote:

"Longtime residents are unable to downsize due to a lack of options, and younger generations struggle to find homes they can afford."

Under a March 2025 development agreement, Zeta InSite LLC plans to convert the former school at 42 Milk Street into 29 affordable rentals while keeping public open space on the site. On September 24, 2026, the Massachusetts Housing Partnership announced a $1,000,000 Climate Ready Housing award for the project's deep energy retrofit. Twenty-nine apartments will not change the citywide numbers. Still, adding rental homes could offer another option for some residents who want something smaller, potentially freeing up houses for sale.

Reading the market from the station platform

Newburyport Crossing will open into an area that is already changing. Metzy's BBQ & Cantina at 5 Boston Way, beside the station, holds a grand reopening on October 1, 2026. Founder Erik Metzdorf describes it as expanding beyond the restaurant and food truck into catering, events and community gatherings. Over the next few years, the station area will add hundreds of new residents and more places to eat and gather. It will not add single-family homes or condos for sale.

For buyers, the practical takeaway is narrower than the headlines. The homes you are competing for will come from owners deciding to sell, and new construction will not add to them. In August 2026 those owners listed more homes than a year earlier and still sold them in 33 days at 100.6% of original list. The condo market, with less than two months of supply, is tighter still.

If you're weighing an offer in Newburyport this fall and the August headline has you wondering whether you have room to negotiate, Jamie Frontiero can go through the street-level sales behind that median with you and help you set your offer price. Let's Connect.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.