The weeks after the Fourth of July are typically slow for the residential real estate market; it’s a good time to reflect on the market overall. Statewide, things are booming.
The median sale price of a single-family home shot up to $395,000 in June, according to The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman. This marks 15 straight months of year-over-year price increases going back to April of 2016. And early reports are that June sales were robust.
However, not all of the state’s 351 municipalities are shattering price ceilings. The median price of a single-family home in many communities is still well below the 2005 watermark, while prices in some communities like Cambridge and Charlestown are way up and on track to double their 2005 sale price within a few years.
A Dubious Honor
“Castle Rock” is a Hulu series based on the eponymous fictional, hardscrabble town where dozens of Stephen King’s horror stories take place. When the producers were looking for a place to film that would resemble the town first mentioned in The Dead Zone, it chose Orange, Massachusetts.
“We have a blight,” said Paul Riendeau, broker/owner of Four Columns Realty in Orange. “People are excited about the TV show. I’m not happy about it, but there’s not much you can do. The town fathers bought into it.”
“There are houses over $300,000 that have been sitting there forever,” Riendeau said. “Our values are below those of surrounding communities. I could sell a three-bedroom ranch for $175,000 all day if they existed. For the first time in a long time we’re starting to see homes sell for above assessed values. There are no employment opportunities in the Athol/Orange area.”
Prices in Gardner are also creeping upward, though still well shy of the 2005 high-water mark of $219,000. Through the first half of 2017, the median sale price was $170,000, up from $165,000 the year before.
Where The Jobs Are
He’s cautiously optimistic, but Chris Daly, broker/owner of Daly Property Shoppe in Gardner, said he doesn’t know when or if home prices in Gardner will reach or surpass the peak of 2005.
“We have seen it come back quite a bit from even three years ago,” Daly said. “We are creeping back gradually. One thing that depressed median prices here was all the foreclosures. They were going for below-market values. They’re still out there, but they’re not as bad as they were. That’s helpful. People feel like we’re past the worst.”
Gardner buyers who bought near the peak are still underwater, he said, though as prices rise and equity has increased that is becoming less of an issue.
“People don’t know enough about our city,” Daly said. “Gardner is one of a few communities in Massachusetts that have amenities like a college, a hospital, a municipal golf course, a newspaper, an airport, a radio station and a state-of-the-art library. We have a lot of things out here for people to take advantage of.”
There aren’t as many good jobs in Gardner as there were when the furniture factories were running strong. Today, most working residents commute to Worcester, Leominster and Fitchburg, though a small percentage commute to the Boston/Cambridge area. Daly is hoping the lower cost of housing and better public transportation will change that.
“What will help is the new MBTA Wachusett commuter rail station in Fitchburg, on the Westminster line, about 11 minutes from Gardner,” he said. “People who are looking in the Boston area and are frustrated by the prices and competition really ought to look at North Central Massachusetts. The 6:20 [a.m.] express train leaves Wachusett and gets to Porter Square by 7:28. North Station is only 10 minutes further.”
Daly concedes it’s a hefty commute, but said it’s softened by the amenities, outdoor activities and low cost of housing in The Chair City.
“You can find affordable homes here. I have a five-bedroom, four-bath house on an acre of land with a tennis court priced at $349,000,” Daly said. “What would that cost in Cambridge?”
It would cost quite a bit more in Cambridge, one would infer, where the median single-family home price year-to-date, according to The Warren Group, is over $1.2 million.
Contrast Gardner with Belmont, a real estate success story. In some ways the town is becoming an extension of Boston or Cambridge, where the high-paying C-suite jobs are, said Susan Condrick, a real estate agent with Gibson Sotheby’s International.
“There is so little inventory, once people make a decision to stay in Belmont, they often have to settle for a smaller house that might need some work and is on a smaller lot,” she said. “They’re looking at quality of life. I think they’ve often lowered their expectations and increased their dollar amount. Companies are coming to the area; people are coming, too, and they want a place to live. I feel like we’re being pulled into the city.”
Then there’s Charlestown, just two miles down the road from Kendall Square, a job center sometimes referred to as “the most innovative square mile on the planet.”
“Single-family homes priced between $900,000 and $1.3 million are flying off the market,” said Nancy Roth, of Coldwell Banker The Hammond Group, who lives and only works in Charlestown. “For the first time in my [19-year] career, I didn’t have a single listing over the Fourth of July holiday.”
