Lack Of Disclosed Prices Leaves Phillipston's July Market Trend Unclear

PHILLIPSTON -- Eleven property transfers were recorded in Phillipston between July 10 and August 8, but only one disclosed a sale price, according to Worcester County Registry of Deeds records.

MARKET OVERVIEW Eleven deeds were recorded in Phillipston during the four-week period, but only one, the July 14 transfer of 245 Athol Rd, disclosed a sale price of $34,260. That figure represents both the low and high end of the disclosed price range and the calculated median, though a single data point does not establish a market-wide price trend. Ten of the 11 filings list no consideration amount, including several transfers between banks, a mortgage-registration entity, and family or trust parties, so the raw count of 11 does not by itself indicate how much traditional home-buying activity occurred in town during the period.

TOP SALES With only one disclosed price in the dataset, a price-ranked list of top sales cannot be produced beyond that single transaction. 245 Athol Rd sold July 14 for $34,260. The seller was listed as Hastings Diane M; the buyers were Operative Bank and Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. The remaining 10 recorded transfers listed no sale price. They include: 5 Myrtle Rd, sold July 24, seller Fagundes Cynthia B Tr, buyer Camp Myrtle Irrevocable Trust; 370 Queen Lake Rd, sold July 22, seller Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc, buyer Lenox Financial Mortgage Corp; 885 Royalston Rd, sold July 21, seller Total Mortgage Services LLC, buyer Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc; and 15 Lovell Pl, sold July 20, seller Firstbank, buyer Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. None of these can be ranked against one another or against the Athol Road sale because their prices were not disclosed.

NEIGHBORHOOD BREAKDOWN Two streets had multiple recorded transfers. Queen Lake Road had deeds at 370 Queen Lake Rd, recorded July 22, and 285 Queen Lake Rd, recorded July 20. Royalston Road had deeds at 885 Royalston Rd, recorded July 21, and 80 Royalston Rd, recorded July 15. The remaining seven transfers were spread across separate locations: Myrtle Road, Highland Avenue, Athol Road, Lincoln Road, Secret Lake Road, and one filing listing only "Phillipston, MA" with no street address given. Price-based tiering was not possible for this breakdown because only one transaction disclosed a sale price; that transaction, at 245 Athol Rd, falls under the under-$500,000 tier.

MARKET NOTES Four of the 11 transfers involved Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc as either seller or buyer, at 370 Queen Lake Rd, 885 Royalston Rd, 15 Lovell Pl and 245 Athol Rd, a pattern consistent with mortgage-assignment or lender-related filings rather than open-market sales. Two deeds show the same family name on both sides of the transaction record: the July 27 filing lists Gallant Bradley J and Gallant Julia P as sellers with no buyer specified in the data, and the July 20 filing at 285 Queen Lake Rd lists Gallant Bradley J and Julia P as both seller and buyer. The July 24 transfer of 5 Myrtle Rd moved the property from Fagundes Cynthia B, as trustee, into the Camp Myrtle Irrevocable Trust. Deed records for this period do not include property type, bedroom, bathroom or square-footage data, so no observations can be made on those measures.

Recorded Deeds

Source: Registry of Deeds. Sale amounts shown as recorded; transfers without a disclosed consideration are noted as such.

Compiled from official town feeds, community organizations, and local press. Outside reporting is attributed inline.