From Tara’s Desk

April has been one of those months where you look up and suddenly everything is in motion. Buyers who spent all winter getting ready are out, inventory is still tight, and every headline seems to be about tariffs — which, yes, do affect real estate, and no, not in the way the news makes it sound. More on that below. Also: witch windows. You’re going to want to know about witch windows.

Quirky Facts You Want to Know {#quirky-facts}

There are farmhouses in Vermont with windows installed at a 45-degree angle in the gable-end wall. They’re diagonal. The long edge runs parallel to the roofline, and they look, at first glance, like a mistake.

They are not.

The folklore explanation is that witches cannot fly their broomsticks through a tilted window. The angle disrupts the flight path enough that a witch on a standard broom is stuck outside. Whether anyone actually believed this is a question historians are still politely arguing about.

The practical explanation is more interesting. When a 19th-century Vermont farmer needed light and ventilation in a second-floor room but the gable wall had no room for a standard vertical window — because the two roof slopes met too close to the wall — they rotated the window 45 degrees and fit it into the narrow space. One window. No structural compromises. Full light. It’s been described as the most efficient non-solution to a problem ever documented in American farmhouse construction.

The windows go by several names: witch windows, lazy windows, Vermont windows, and coffin windows. That last one comes from the idea that you could slide a coffin down the roof slope from a second-floor bedroom when the staircase was too narrow to manage it otherwise. Whether this was ever actually done is an open question. It is a very good story, either way.

They are found almost exclusively in central and northern Vermont, in farmhouses built mostly during the 1800s. You can still see them today, and they are worth stopping for.

Read the full witch window history.

Town of the Week: Gloucester, MA {#town-of-the-week}

Gloucester is not pretending to be something it isn’t. It’s a working fishing city on Cape Ann, about an hour from Boston, and it still smells like the ocean in a way that not every coastal town manages to hold onto. It has the oldest continuously operating art colony in America, a beach that requires an early arrival or a lot of patience with the parking situation, and enough good food that a little planning is worth it.

Start at Common Crow Market on Washington Street for coffee and something from the baked goods case. Then head to Rocky Neck, the art colony on the eastern harbor. Fifty-One Rocky Neck has waterfront dining and live music on weekend evenings, and The Salted Cod Arthouse serves food alongside rotating work from about 30 local artists in a building that used to be used for salting cod. Good Harbor Beach is a short drive east. Walk out to Salt Island at low tide if the timing works.

The housing market reflects what you’d expect from a walkable coastal city with a strong identity and limited inventory. The median home value in Gloucester is around $663,000, up roughly 3.5% over the past year per Zillow data. Homes are going to pending in about eight days on average. There’s not a lot of hesitation.

If you want coastal New England without the weekend-only energy, Gloucester is worth more than a drive-through.

Read the full Gloucester housing guide.

New England Market Pulse {#market-pulse}

Tariffs are hitting construction costs — and inventory is paying the price. Massachusetts builders are contending with material cost increases of roughly 6% above 2024 baseline figures, and total project costs are up about 3% as a result. Developers are pausing or scaling back planned housing projects because the math no longer works. The practical effect for buyers is straightforward: new construction is not going to add meaningful inventory this spring or summer. The competition stays. (NBC Boston)

Southern NH inventory remains historically tight. Supply is holding around 1.5 months statewide, well below the five to six months that signals a balanced market. The median sale price for a single-family home reached $530,000 in March 2026, up 1% year over year. That’s the softest year-over-year gain since May 2023, and it’s worth noting. Prices are still rising; they’re just rising more slowly. For buyers in markets near the Massachusetts border, like Salem, Derry, and Londonderry, conditions are still competitive. The pace is just coming off the boil a little. (NHPR, April 8, 2026)

Rates are drifting lower. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate averaged 6.30% as of April 16, 2026, down from 6.37% the prior week. The January rate was closer to 7%. The steady drift off those highs has meaningfully improved purchasing power for buyers who’ve been active this quarter. If you have a pre-approval from more than six weeks ago, it’s worth a five-minute call to your lender to see what the current number looks like. (Freddie Mac PMMS)

See the full market data breakdown.

Someone in your circle is thinking about buying or selling right now. They just haven’t said it out loud yet. If that person comes to mind, send them my way.

Tara Donahue-Scott | tarad@kw.com | tarashomes.com