Several home sales over $1 million this year have helped push up home prices in Marion. This 4,727-square-foot custom-built home in Marion, featuring a gourmet kitchen and first-floor master suite, is currently on the market with an asking price of more than $1.4 million.
Marion, a quaint seaside community where the population reaches only about 8,000 during the peak summer months, has seen its home prices balloon this year.
The median price for single-family homes sold in Marion through October of this year reached $550,000, an 88 percent increase from the $292,500 median selling price recorded during the same months last year.
Located 55 miles south of Boston, Marion is in fact one of the top five communities in Massachusetts with the steepest home price appreciation so far this year. The $550,000 median selling price posted through October of this year is 125 percent higher than four years ago, when the median home price in the town was a mere $244,000.
Local Realtors say a significant number of homes priced over $1 million have sold this year – a relatively new phenomenon for Marion – and that has helped fuel the home price increase.
At least six homes priced $1 million or more have sold in Marion this year. Those sales include a $4 million home with five bedrooms overlooking Sippican Harbor that was sold in August and a 4,175-square-foot contemporary-style home in Marion Village that went for $2.15 million in June. Even a 2,249-square-foot beachfront home described as a “log cabin” fetched $1 million in October.
Buyers who are seeking a seaside community but don’t want to deal with the traffic on Cape Cod have been drawn to the community, according to local Realtors. With an art center, spectacular water views, a well-regarded private preparatory school and yacht, tennis and golf clubs, the town has plenty to offer, according to Realtors.
“It’s just a situation where this town is suddenly being discovered,” said Beth Van der Veer, a longtime Marion resident and real estate agent at Jack Conway & Co .in nearby Mattapoisett
Sixty-four single-family homes were sold in Marion from January through October of this year, up 12.2 percent from the 57 homes sold during the same months last year.
Keen buyer interest is pushing prices up. A two-bedroom raised ranch-style home that recently went under agreement for $560,000 would have sold for about $275,000 about two years ago, said Van der Veer.
Maryann Hayes, broker-owner of Coldwell Banker Hayes Assoc. in Marion, said many empty nesters from the Boston area, who in the past may have chosen to purchase a home on Cape Cod but prefer an easier commute to Boston and don’t want to deal with the bridge and traffic leading into and out of the Cape area, are choosing to buy in Marion. Many buyers purchase second homes that they use on the weekends that later become permanent homes once they retire, she said.
Hayes, who says many of this year’s high-priced home sales have surprised her, has also noticed a wave of homeowners selling their second homes on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard and purchasing a home in Marion instead.
Waterfront homes generate the greatest interest and demand. “Everything with water is coming up” in price, said Hayes.
But Hayes also pointed out that home prices in Marion Village, another desirable location within walking distance to shops and schools, have also spiked.
And while second-home buyers are a substantial part of the residential real estate market in Marion, young families are also feeding the market frenzy. According to Hayes, the community is very family-oriented.
Turning on the Charm
Van der Veer concurs, saying that people who have grown up in Marion are returning to raise their kids there. The school system is good, according to Van der Veer, and Tabor Academy, an independent college preparatory school located in town, offers another educational option.
The Piney Point neighborhood of Marion, which used to be filled with retirees, is now full of families, she said. “The quality of life for family living here says it all,” said Van der Veer, who describes Marion as the Duxbury of 20 years ago.
New home construction in town has been sparse. Some new homes have been built off Old Knoll Road and in the Old Sheepfield neighborhood. The few newly built homes that have been constructed recently have been selling in the $600,000 to $700,000 price range.
In the Old Sheepfield neighborhood, which is within walking distance to the village, homes that only a few years ago sold $400,000 are now going for $750,000, said Van der Veer.
While there are quite a few split-entry ranches and smaller cottages that are on the market for less than $500,000, it’s tough to find a four-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath Colonial in good condition for under half a million dollars, said Hayes.
Homes priced in the $300,000 range typically need work, according to Kelly Sol, broker-owner of Kelly Sol Realty in Mattapoisett.
Buyers often ask Sol what distinguishes Marion from nearby Mattapoisett, another small seaside community where the median price through October this year is $375,000.
Sol said that while both communities are very similar, Marion – with the Beverly Yacht Club, the Marion Art Center and the Kittansett Golf Club – has “more of a formal feel.”
“Marion and Mattapoisett are charming seaside communities and have a lot of the charm you see on Cape Cod” but without the traffic, said Sol.
While Marion’s real estate market has been brisk throughout most of the year, Sol said in the last two to three months she has started to see a slowdown.
For her part, Van der Veer said she anticipates that prices will start to level off next year. Hayes, on the other hand, says that as long as interest rates remain low and the Boston real estate market remains strong, housing should fare well in Marion.
“We’re still below that [Greater Boston] marketplace,” she said.
Aglaia Pikounis can be reached at apikounis@thewarrengroup.com.
