Million dollar home sales in Marblehead heading for record
Sales of million dollar homes continued at a brisk pace in the second quarter. YTD there have been 17 sales with a further 15 pending. If all these close, the total will reach 32, within sight of the record 36 in 2005. As there are several months of sales till to come, I think it is a fair bet that 2014 will see a record level of million dollar sales in Marblehead.
Source: MLS, Oliver Reports, Registry of Deeds
If you – or somebody you know – are considering buying or selling a home and have questions about the market and/or current home prices, feel free to contact me on 617.834.8205 or [email protected].
Andrew Oliver is a Realtor with Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty
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I’m very surprised at how few houses above $2 million have sold over the last ten years. There are so many waterfront houses on the Neck, so many very large and beautifully landscaped houses there that aren’t on the water, a reasonable number on Peach’s Point, and so on. It’s hard to understand why no more than 1 – 4 of these houses a year sell for over $2 million.
I wonder whether there is a psychological ceiling, or market perception, that houses in Marblehead just aren’t worth more than $2 million? The evidence in your chart certainly seems to suggest that.
This seems more notable when you take into account the scores of water front homes that have been bought in the last 15 years that have either been gutted, or totally replaced at great cost after being purchased for a large sum.
One moral of the story seems to be that no matter how great your location is, you better think twice before tying more than $2 million up in purchase and renovation costs, as it seems likely that you’ll get the excess back out again.
Meanwhile, thanks for all the great continuing data.
In terms of $2 million plus we peaked at 10 in 2004, and 9 in 2006 and 2007 before dropping off to just 1 in 2011. So far this year we have had 3 sales with 4 more pending so we are heading in the right direction. And sales from $1-2 million look like being a record this year.
One day I will do an analysis of how many houses there are in Marblehead with an Assessed Value above $2,3 4 million etc. A lot of the waterfront properties, of course, stay in the same family for generations, while others sell privately. That being said, in Boston this year there have been 29 SFH sales and 73 condo sales above $2 million.
Waterfront land is assessed generally in the $2-3.5 million range. Either the land is over-valued – and we have seen sales in the last year in excess of $4 million where the house is being torn down, so that doesn’t seem to make sense – or waterfront property is under-valued.