Quincy’s Sales Slump Broke in September With the Busiest September in Three Years

Data: MLS PIN, single-family homes, Quincy, through September 30, 2026.

In our August report on Quincy, we made a prediction. Inventory had finally built up over the summer, we wrote, and many of those listings would close in September and October, so “Quincy’s fall numbers may look considerably better than its spring ones.”

September answered quickly. Quincy closed 40 single-family sales last month, against 26 in September 2025. That is a 54% jump, the most closings in any month since August 2025, and the busiest September in more than three years of Quincy data we track.

For a city that had trailed its own 2025 sales count in every single month from January through August, that is a real turn.

The gap that closed

Here is how far behind Quincy had fallen, and how much ground it made up.

Period	2026 sales	2025 sales	Change
January–August	181	243	−25.5%
Q3 (July–September)	106	117	−9.4%
September alone	40	26	+53.8%
January–September	221	269	−17.8%

Quincy is still behind for the year. But the deficit went from a quarter of the market to under a fifth in one month, and the quarterly gap is now less than 10%.

Caption: Eight months of shortfalls, then a September that beat last year by 14 sales.

What drove it: supply, not a sudden wave of buyers

Quincy’s problem in late 2025 and early 2026 was never a lack of buyers. It was a lack of houses. Active listings bottomed at 14 in December 2025. The city’s housing stock was effectively locked.

That changed over the summer. Quincy had 50 single-family homes for sale at the end of September and 52 in August, the two highest counts in our records for the city, which go back to early 2023. More listings gave buyers something to buy, and they bought it. Homes that closed in September averaged 29 days on market, down from 44 a year earlier.

And those buyers kept paying full price. Quincy homes sold for 100.49% of asking in September and 100.95% across the third quarter.

Prices: up 8.6% on the quarter

The average Quincy single-family home sold for $810,653 in Q3 2026, compared with $746,554 in Q3 2025. That 8.6% gain is the third-strongest year-over-year price increase among the eleven markets we cover.

Caption: Quincy’s Q3 average was its highest quarterly figure in the 18-month record.

September’s individual average of $765,013 was lower than August’s $856,860, but that is normal when 40 closings replace 30. A busier month pulls in more of Quincy’s mid-priced capes and colonials from Wollaston, Houghs Neck and South Quincy, and the average follows the mix.

The rate question

Quincy’s run came on contracts written in July and August, with 30-year mortgages near 6.5%. By October 1 the average rate was 7.28%. Quincy’s buyers are, more than most South Shore towns, stretching to reach an $800,000 price point, which makes them sensitive to every quarter-point. With 50 homes still for sale, Quincy enters the winter with more competition among sellers than it has had in years.

You can see how Quincy compares with its neighbors in our South Shore Q3 2026 vs. Q3 2025 roundup, and how our August call was set up in last month’s Quincy report.

Thinking about selling a house in Quincy?

The listings that sold in September were the ones buyers could finance and move into. Quincy also has plenty of the other kind: triple-deckers that have been chopped up and patched together over the decades, Germantown and Quincy Point homes that have not had a real update since the 1970s, and estate properties that have sat empty while the family decides what to do.

Those houses are much harder sells in a 7% market. A buyer’s lender will not fund knob-and-tube wiring or a failing roof, and a buyer stretching for an $800,000 payment has no budget left for repairs. A fire-damaged house is the extreme case: nobody can price the rebuild until the walls are open, and most retail buyers will not try.

Bluefin Property Buyers buys Quincy homes for cash in exactly that kind of condition. We are a local Massachusetts company, not a national call center, and we have bought and renovated houses on the South Shore for years. Our offers do not depend on a lender, an appraisal or mortgage rates. You can request a cash offer on your Quincy house here and decide with a real number in hand.

Take the easy way out.

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