From the Worcester Business Journal:
Prices in Southborough are definitely benefiting the consumer, dropping almost 41 percent between the first quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of this year, from $585,450 to $346,000. Of all the MetroWest communities, Southborough lost the biggest percentage in homes prices from 2008 to 2009.
Thanks for the link!
Though a 37% decrease in Southborough’s median April home sales price is surely eye-popping, I don’t believe the numbers have as much validity for Southborough’s situation, or that much of anything should be inferred from this one-month window.
Southborough’s numbers were based on the sales of seven (7) homes during April, the 2nd lowest sales quantity of the 17 MetroWest communities in the survey (See Metrowest Daily News, May 27, A1 & A10) Of the 7 SBRO April home sales, I’m curious as to how many were small “starter” homes. When one baselines a town median sales price on just 7 home sales, the home type can really skew the figures.
The same thing occurred on the high end in Southborough a couple of years ago, when all the new construct Schipper Farms estates and other Executive home lots went up for sale. After several dozen adjoining tract properties sold for $1.2 -> $1.6 million – over a few quarters, the town’s median home sales price went through roof.
SBRO is somewhere in the top 1/4 of all Metrowest communities in retaining home values, but it will take a much longer window, and larger home sales sample to prove this out. I would be more interested in seeing the “Days-on-Market” and total active SBRO home listing trends.
I have met many people over the past year or two who want to live in SBRO, but I can’t say that I’ve seen a lot realtor’s signs at the end of driveways.
Matthew’s assessment is correct. The decline is more a function of what has sold than the market nose diving in Southboro.