Petersham Home Prices Range Widely as Most September Sales Await Data

PETERSHAM -- Petersham recorded 12 property transfers between Aug. 28 and Sept. 26, but only three carried a sale price in county records so far, and eight of the 12 listed a bank, credit union or mortgage company as a party to the deed.

MARKET OVERVIEW The Worcester County Registry of Deeds recorded 12 property transfers in Petersham during the period. Of those, three have a recorded sale price: $20,000, $249,000 and $329,568, putting the range at $20,000 to $329,568 with a median of $249,000. Prices for the other nine transfers are not yet available; that typically reflects a data lag of about a week at the registry rather than any withholding by the parties involved. Twelve recorded transfers is a moderate count for a single reporting period, though with three-quarters of the transactions still missing price data, the total dollar volume for the period cannot yet be assessed.

TOP SALES The highest-priced transaction, at $329,568, closed Sept. 23 on a Petersham parcel for which no street address was listed in the deed. The seller was Stephanie E. Starr; the buyers were Freedom Mortgage Corp. and Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc.

The second-highest recorded sale, at $249,000, closed Sept. 2 at 41 East St. The seller was Linda S. Kenney; the buyer was Cornerstone Bank.

The third recorded sale, at $20,000, closed Sept. 15 at 43 West St. The sellers were Elaine A. Caron and Elaine Caron; the buyer was Cornerstone Bank.

The remaining nine transfers, at 70 New Salem Rd, 43 Amidon Dr, 4 Camel Hump Rd, 11 Common St, 35 West St, 32 West St, 70 Hardwick Rd, 80 Old East St and 8 Camel Hump Rd, have no recorded price yet and cannot be ranked among the top sales.

NEIGHBORHOOD BREAKDOWN West Street saw the most activity of any street in the period, with three separate transfers: 43 West St ($20,000), and 35 West St and 32 West St, both with price not yet available. Camel Hump Road had two transfers, at 4 Camel Hump Rd and 8 Camel Hump Rd, both with price not yet available. The remaining seven transfers were spread across seven separate addresses: the unaddressed Petersham parcel, 70 New Salem Rd, 43 Amidon Dr, 11 Common St, 70 Hardwick Rd, 41 East St and 80 Old East St. By price tier among the three sales with recorded figures, one fell under $50,000 (43 West St) and two fell between $200,000 and $350,000 (41 East St and the unaddressed parcel).

MARKET NOTES Eight of the 12 recorded transfers listed a bank, credit union or mortgage company, Cornerstone Bank, Millbury National Bank, GFA Federal Credit Union, IC Federal Credit Union, Freedom Mortgage Corp. or Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc., as either grantor or grantee. That is a pattern consistent with foreclosure or lender-related deed activity rather than conventional owner-to-buyer sales, though the deed data does not specify the type of transaction. One transfer, at 11 Common St, moved the property from Toni Begman to a trust bearing her own name, an intra-family or estate-planning type of transfer. Deed records for this period do not include property type, bedroom or bathroom counts, or square footage for any of the 12 transfers, so no per-square-foot or property-type comparisons can be made.

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.