A sign of changing times: Priced out of Natick
Brendan and his wife, Emily, thought finding a four bedroom home in the suburbs would be a cinch.
After all, we are in the midst of a seemingly never ending real estate downturn, right?
Well yes and no.
Home sales have been skidding along at record low levels not seen since the early 1990s, though activity has begun to pick up over the past few months.
But prices in more than a few suburbs within have held fairly steady or have gone up over the past year. (I quote Brendan and look at prices in the western suburbs in this Globe West piece that ran yesterday.)
Back to Brendan and his wife, who found themselves outbid for a 1950s colonial in need of work last spring. The Lois Street home, on the market for $430,000, wound up fetching $450,000 after a short but furious bidding war.
Renting near Boston, they are intent on finding a home of their own as they look ahead to starting a family.
The couple has kept on looking in Natick and surrounding towns, but they keep on running into the same thing as they search for that elusive four bedroom home in reasonable condition, namely overpriced homes in need of lots of work.
On paper, Natick should be more affordable than other western suburbs, with prices having slipped 3.2 percent in 2011 to $387,000, according to real estate publisher and data firm The Warren Group.
The reality is there are no real bargains unless you are willing to put in significant amounts of sweat equity.
Here's Brendan:
My guess is that (after months of watching)if we want four bedrooms and a decent yard with good location with favorable commute then we should expect to pay about $600k+. And I'm not talking about Wellesley, Needham, etc. I'm talking about Natick, Wayland, Sherborn, and to a lesser extent Holliston.
I haven't seen a bargain in months - no house has hit the market that's made me drop everything and run out there to go see it. Its all fixer-uppers, interior decoration trapped in the 1970s, houses built into hillsides, bizarre additions and renovations, crowded lots with neighbors on top of them, 7-foot high ceilings (i'm tall, this is a huge problem), and places that are 150+ years old. House searching has become a very depressing process.
