Luxury condominiums are springing up in suburban communities across Massachusetts. In Hingham, The Residences at Black Rock feature free-standing condos, such as the one pictured above, with price tags of $1.2 million or higher.
In Hingham, a golf course community featuring detached luxury condominiums that are selling for $1.2 million and higher has drawn a diverse group of upscale buyers.
Fifty miles north of Hingham in the suburban town of Ipswich, another community is offering high-end condominium living with access to a championship golf course, fitness center and spa services.
Affluent buyers searching for ultra-luxury condos don’t have to move to cities like Boston, New York or Chicago. Locally, hundreds of million-dollar-plus condominiums are in the works in suburban communities like Belmont, Hingham and Wayland.
Developers are constructing those condo communities with wealthy, aging baby boomers in mind, particularly empty nesters who no longer have children living in the home and are eager to embrace a more carefree lifestyle where responsibilities like lawn mowing and snow shoveling are left to others.
Such high-end condo communities appeal to many buyers who seek such a lifestyle but have no interest in moving from their suburban communities to high-rise developments in the city with no backyards and open space around them, according to real estate marketing specialists.
“It’s an alternative to maintenance-free living at the high end in an urban environment,” said Sue Hawkes, a principal with The Collaborative Cos., who is providing her consulting and marketing expertise to several high-end condo projects.
But with sales of single-family homes softening this year and a glut of luxury resale properties on the market, industry observers are wondering what type of effect that will have on the new condo communities.
Many buyers of those million-dollar-plus condos are so-called “move-down” purchasers – meaning that they’re hoping to sell a home they’ve owned for years before buying a new home.
“Traffic is high” at some of the communities, said Hawkes. “But nobody is willing to purchase until they can sell their home, which is obviously a challenge.”
Still, according to Hawkes, there isn’t an “oversupply” of new million-dollar-plus condos in the suburbs because most of the condos are selling preconstruction.
“There’s very little inventory at this point in time,” said Hawkes, noting there isn’t more than a two- to three-months’ supply. “Once the market strengthens and the houses start selling Â… you’re going to see demand going up again.”
There were 181 condos with a price tag of $900,000 or higher listed for sale as of July 25 in Bay State communities outside of Suffolk County, where Boston is located, according to MLS Property Information Network. That’s about 40 more condos than the same day a year earlier, when 142 condos in that price category were listed for sale.
Sales of high-priced condos have increased steadily over the last four years in communities outside of Boston. About 280 condos priced $900,000 or more were sold last year, up from 230 in 2004 and 120 in 2003, according to The Warren Group, parent company of Banker & Tradesman. Only 113 condos in that range were sold in 2002.
Approximately 140 condos with sale prices of $900,000 or more were sold between January and June of this year, according to The Warren Group.
‘A Broad Audience’
About 10 miles outside of Boston, 28 condos have been sold at The Woodlands on Belmont Hill, a 121-unit luxury townhouse community in Belmont that is under development by Northland Residential Corp. Construction of the townhouse development, which is being built on land previously owned by McLean Hospital, started last May, and selling began last September.
“We have not seen the softening of the general real estate market affect our ability to sell at the Belmont Hill project,” said Jack Dawley, a partner with Burlington-based Northland Residential Corp. “Our clientele has a great deal of equity in their existing homes and affluence of their own right and they are choosing to make a move because it is right for them.”
Buyers have predominantly been empty nesters coming from communities like Belmont, Winchester, Lexington and Newton, said Dawley.
Prices for the townhouses start at about $1 million. So far, buyers are spending an average of $1.3 million to purchase a townhouse and then an additional $100,000 to $300,000 on special features like kitchen upgrades, media rooms and finished basements, according to Dawley.
In Hingham, 73 condos have been sold at The Residences at Black Rock, a 138-unit development featuring detached homes that range in size from about 2,400 square feet to 3,800 square feet. Selling prices start at $1.2 million.
The golf course community – a project developed by Jim Read of Hingham and Acton-based NorthWest Development – was started four years ago.
The Hingham development, built along Black Rock Country Club, was targeted to an older buyer. But Carrie Bush, the project’s sales manager, said purchasers include single professionals, families with young children, empty nesters and retirees.
According to Hawkes, of The Collaborative Cos., the average age of the buyers so far has been 48, when originally it was thought that the buyers would be closer to their late 50s.
Seventeen condos have been sold to couples with school-age children and several others have been sold to single women, said Hawkes, who handled marketing for the development.
“We didn’t realize it would have an appeal to such a broad audience,” said Hawkes.
In other parts of the country, maintenance-free living appeals to a broader range of people, explained Hawkes.
But what the developers and marketers discovered with the Hingham project is that there’s considerable demand from buyers who are very busy with their careers and raising their children. “They love the idea of maintenance-free living,” said Hawkes.
Hawkes also believes that because the new homes in The Residences at Black Rock are larger, offer a host of amenities and are located in a community with reputable schools, they are drawing younger buyers.
Most experts agree, however, that luxury condos – even in the suburbs – are geared more for the empty-nester crowd who are seeking maintenance-free living.
“It’s really a lifestyle choice for them,” said David Wluka, president of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors.
Turner Hill Preservation Assoc., an affiliate of Boston-based Raymond Property Co. – a firm behind such luxury developments as Trinity Place in Copley Square and Flagship Wharf in Charlestown – began working on a condo community in Ipswich featuring upscale amenities about five years ago.
Known as The Residences at Turner Hill, the community will include 160 homes – a mix of duplex townhouses, free-standing homes and flats – once it is completed, according to Joseph R. Lumino, the project’s marketing manager.
An 18-hole championship golf course, to which Turner Hill condo owners will have access, is in its second year of operation.
The first phase of the project includes 30 arts-and-crafts style, free-standing cottages with views of the golf course and the surrounding Willowdale State Forest. Only 16 of the homes – ranging in size from 2,780 square feet to just over 3,400 square feet – have been built and sold and another 14 are still left, said Lumino.
Prices for the homes start at over $1 million.
In addition to the free-standing homes, duplex townhouses ranging in price from $770,000 up to $945,000 as well as one- and two-bedroom flats priced between $500,000 to $600,000 are planned for the Ipswich development, said Lumino.
According to Lumino, the distinguishing features at The Residences at Turner Hill are the amenities to which buyers will have access – swimming pools, a fitness center, spa services, walking trails, and a golf club and championship course.
Closer to Boston, a smaller condominium development in Wayland features 16 townhouses that are on the market for over $1 million.
Another project in the pipeline that will give suburbanites some more options in luxury living are the 215 condominiums being planned as part of the Natick Mall expansion. Some of the condos are expected fetch up to $1.3 million.
