By The Boston Globe

Copyright boston

MATTAPOISETT – Carolyn Simcoe was once a Bostonian, but she moved to Quincy and then with her husband to Plymouth, in search of lower rents and more space. Ultimately, though, they had to move even farther south, to Mattapoisett, to find a house that they loved and could actually afford to buy.

“We moved further and further from Boston as we were getting into our 30s,” she said.

The couple is among a cohort of aspiring Massachusetts homeowners who have cast their eyes on the South Coast to finally get a place of their own or find something better than what is available to them in places like Boston.

Southeastern Massachusetts counties are seeing a higher pace of home sales compared to the Greater Boston area, said Asad Khan, a Boston-based senior economist at the real estate brokerage Redfin.

As of July 2025, homes sales in Bristol, which runs from Easton south to Horseneck Beach, were up more than 6 percent compared with the same time a year ago, while Plymouth, where Mattapoisett is located, was up more than 2 percent. Norfolk County, home to Quincy, was flat and Middlesex, the state’s largest county by population, posted a decline of 1.5 percent, Khan said.

Since July 2020, Bristol County has seen the most price growth among the Massachusetts counties, he added, although its median home sale price of $555,000 is among the lowest in the state.

High prices coupled with elevated mortgage rates have made it tough for first-time homebuyers to afford buying in Greater Boston, where the median price for a single-family home hovers near a million dollars, according to the Greater Boston Association of Realtors.

Hannah Jones , a senior economic research analyst at Realtor.com, said that buyers from northern parts of the state bring higher purchasing power, which gives them a better chance at owning in the South Coast, where homes cost up to $200,000 less.

“That might present an opportunity for buyers who are willing to move down the South Coast to find that affordability,” she said.

Homes in Bristol County, compared with those in Norfolk and Middlesex counties, spend fewer days on the market, Jones said, which suggests there is relatively higher demand from buyers. But the area is also seeing fewer price cuts, an indicator that it is a sellers market powered by stable demand from buyers.

“Homes are selling quickly,” Jones said. “Bristol County is definitely seeing even hotter market conditions than the area as a whole . . . as in homes selling quickly and homes attracting a lot of buyer demand.”

As these prospective homeowners stretch away from the city, they are searching in places where they can access highways or a commuter rail that will allow them to still be able to work in Boston.

But even areas well outside Boston are becoming more expensive. And as that trend grows, homebuyers are looking down to cities in the South Coast like Fall River and New Bedford or even Providence, Rhode Island.

“These cities have become affordable sanctuaries for first-time home buyers,” Ahmad Taha said, a Stoughton-based real estate agent.

Simcoe and her husband, Paul, loved living in Plymouth but grew tired of paying someone else their hard-earned cash. Eventually they looked in Mattapoisett, where Paul is from.

“We just wanted to make a purchase so our monthly payments were going towards owning a home instead of just, you know, to Mr. Landlord,” she said.

A company she worked for went public, which helped the couple afford their down payment. They are thinking of starting a family and wanted more room in their new space. Their three-bedroom, three and a half bathroom home in Mattapoisett has a finished basement with a sauna and is near a farm. On any given morning, Simcoe steps into her family room, where through the wide windows she can see cows at her neighbor’s farm.

“It looks like a millennial’s dream, the way they designed it,” she said. “It’s in a nice, quiet, neighborhood in a cul-de-sac. It’s the American dream.”

Chris Demakis , who runs a family real estate brokerage based in Mattapoisett that helped the Simcoes find their new home, said that the South Coast offers a diversity of options for prospective buyers, compared with Boston, the South Shore, or the Cape. The housing market has price points for all types of buyers at different levels of affordability, he said.

“The towns and cities have their own distinct personalities,” he said. “If you live in Mattapoisett, you have access to the likes of New Bedford, Fall River. It’s a jumping off point.”

Buyers can find value for their money in places like Fairhaven.

Properties are available in those areas in the range of $500,000 to $700,000, he said. Elsewhere, in New Bedford or Fall River, homes can be a little cheaper and you can find properties priced in the mid-$400,000s.

By today’s standards, Demakis said, that’s affordable.

Demakis said he recently sold a two-unit duplex in New Bedford for a couple in the city for about $600,000.

“They love the idea that they could have an income-producing house that they could live in and they could also generate income by renting out the other side,” he said.

Meanwhile, the city is now connected to Boston by a commuter rail and boasts a vibrant arts and restaurant scene that gives prospective homeowners an added reason to explore the region for homeownership.

“New Bedford has been going through a perennial renaissance,” Demakis said. “There is a pioneer feeling about the residents there.”

Kimberly Dawes , a real estate agent with the Selling South of Boston team at Keller Williams Realty, said that Wareham is also of growing interest for prospective buyers.

“The beauty of Wareham is you get that Cape feel,” she said.

Dawes also said that New Bedford is attracting buyers who are seeking more properties for investment purposes, too.

“They can buy a lot more for their money,” Dawes said.