Published October 2, 2026 in Market Update

Higher mortgage rates did not stop Lakeville buyers

By Austin Eaton

Real estate, Lakeville

Rates went up. Buyers kept showing up anyway. That is the short version of what happened in Lakeville this summer.

Realtor.com reported that mortgage rates climbed above 7% for the first time since January 2025. CNBC put the average 30-year fixed rate at 7.30% as of September 30, 2026. That is a real payment increase. It matters. And yet the Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 341 homes sold in ZIP 55044 in the three months ending July 31, 2026. That is up 16.4% from the same three months in 2025.

Pending sales tell the same story. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 331 homes under contract in that same period, up 13% from a year before. Buyers did not disappear. They adjusted.

Prices held steady

The Real Estate Data Aggregator put the median sale price in ZIP 55044 at $547,000 for the three months ending July 31, 2026. That is up 2.4% from the same period in 2025. Not a big jump. But prices moved in the right direction even with higher rates. The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported U.S. house prices rose 2.6% from July 2025 to July 2026. Lakeville tracked close to that national pace.

More homes to choose from

The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 344 homes for sale in ZIP 55044 during the period. That is up 30.3% from a year before. New listings came in at 448, up 22.1%. Buyers had more options. That is part of why homes took a little longer to sell. Twenty-eight days at the median is not slow. But it is 5 days longer than the same period in 2025.

Sellers still got their price

The average home in ZIP 55044 sold at 100.1% of list price, according to the Real Estate Data Aggregator. That means sellers got full price, on average. About 30.2% of homes sold above list. That share is down 1.9 points from a year before, which is negligible. Fewer bidding wars. But sellers were not giving things away.

Nationally, Realtor.com reported that 20.8% of listings took a price cut in September 2026, the highest share since October 2022. Lakeville did not mirror that. Homes here still closed above list on average. Pricing right from the start is doing the work.

What the rate picture means for you

Realtor.com put rates above 7% for the first time since January 2025. CNBC reported a Mortgage News Daily survey put the 30-year rate at 7.58% on one day in late September. That is a real number. Monthly payments are higher than they were two years ago. That is just true.

But the Lakeville data shows buyers are working with it, not waiting it out. Sales are up. Pending sales are up. Prices are up a little. The market is not frozen. It is just moving at a more measured pace than the lowest-rate years.

One more thing worth saying: ZIP 55044 covers a wide area. Lakeville North and Lakeville South both sit in it, and so does eastern Lakeville, which feeds into different schools. One street can read very differently from the ZIP code as a whole. If you want to know what the numbers look like for your specific block, just ask.