Disparity Exists Between High-End Towns and Their Lesser Neighbors

Desirable towns seem to maintain their values where nearby, less high-end towns’ housing values are declining.  This phenomenon is an interesting one to say the least, one town’s property values drop significantly while a neighboring town’s property values rise.  A recent article by Ted Seifer in the Boston Globe pointed out how Wellesley, MA and Weston, MA real estate values remained strong while nearby Wayland home values dropped significantly.  In fact real estate values in Weston and Wellesley increased while the median Wayland home value dropped by nearly 20%.  Seifer demonstrates this in the Globe article “Just compare Weston and Wayland. In ultrarich Weston, the median sales price of a single-family home sold last year climbed 7.5 percent, to $1.3 million. In neighboring Wayland, home prices dropped a whopping 20 percent, to a median of $505,000.”

This disparity provides two things, for those who cannot afford real estate in higher-end towns, neighboring towns are often more affordable for those who couldn’t afford them during the real estate boom; and those who can afford real estate in high-end towns can rest assured that they have made a sound real estate investment, knowing that even in a down economy their property values will hold their own.  It appears that even in the worst of times sought-after towns are destined to remain desirable communities at the top of their game.  Location is, after-all, everything.