Wellesley the most expensive town in the Bay State? Don’t believe everything you hear
A new survey that claims Wellesley is the seventh priciest real estate market in the country – and tops in Massachusetts – has generated a lot of buzz in print and on the radio.
The Coldwell Banker report has Wellesley behind only such havens of wealth, power and inflated real estate values as Palo Alto out in the Silicon Valley and such hedge fund and Wall Street havens as Greenwich and Rye.
But the survey is based not on actual sale prices, but rather on the listing prices of homes. Moreover, the pool of homes examined is somewhat limited, having to have at least four bedrooms and two baths.
So while Wellesley list prices may be near the top nationally, actual sales tell a different story. In fact, the survey may say more about the aspirations of Wellesley homeowners – and the jarring contrast with what is actually happening out in the marketplace – than anything else.
The survey pegs the average list price in Wellesley of $1,080,458.
But sale prices, when all homes sold in town are counted, dropped out of the million dollar range a couple years ago in Wellesley and have been sinking since, according to the Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman.
Wellesley prices have actually plunged more than 10 percent over the past year, down to a median sale price of $884,250.
Brookline, when it comes to actual sale prices, is far ahead of Wellesley, at $1,142,500, even beating out the Wellesley’s $1 million-plus list price trumpeted by the Coldwell Banker report. Weston also beats out Wellesley handily, with an average sale price of $1,111,000.
Wellesley homeowners certainly appear to believe they live in the state’s most coveted, expensive community, based on the prices they are asking for. But actual sales tell a different story.
