Category Archives: real estate

MACRIS: How to really house hunt in Wellesley

The Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System (MACRIS) is a really swell website for looking up the way back history of your home or a home you might be thinking of buying in town. The system also has historical info on neighborhoods and other structures in Wellesley. My introduction to MACRIS came while researching town sites [...]

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Another Wellesley teardown

This teardown, at 16 River Glen Rd. in Wellesley MA, involves a home sold to a builder. Thanks to DN for passing along the photos.

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Wellesley Town Meeting wraps up

Wellesley Town Meeting ended last night, with meeting members voting in favor of adopting a sustainable energy plan and forming a standing committee to support the plan. Also approved: closing a loophole in the Large House Review policy that had enabled developers to avoid including unfinished attic space in original measurement of a house’s size; [...]

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Wellesley named 1 of best places to live…but we already knew that

Boston Magazine includes Wellesley in its Best Places to Live issue, specifically including the town among those where “opportunity knocks,” alongside Weston, Dover and Sherborn: “Opportunity is relative, of course, and in the MetroWest that doesn’t necessarily mean affordable. But if you’ve got the money, a million ain’t what it used to be — in [...]

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Seniors at center of Wellesley's new Grossman's lot plan

The Townsman reports that the company developing the old Grossman’s lot site in lower falls still plans to build a retail/office building but has changed the focus of its apartment complex to focus on senior citizens.  The plans for the independent and assisted living housing were aired before the Board of Selectmen on Monday. Benefits [...]

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There goes another Wellesley house

A stealth photographer sent along this photo of a fresh River Glen Rd. tear-down, not far from another recent demolition. The shutterbug quipped: “Perhaps this activity is an early sign of an improving housing market — or maybe just some builders who don’t know when to stop.”

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Wellesley real estate stats: Good for buyers, bad for sellers

Local real estate guy John Prescott blogs about  MLS numbers for the first 9 months of the year and the stats aren’t pretty for Wellesley — unless you’re looking to buy a house. Inventory is up almost 50% vs. the first 9 months of last year.  Median price is down 16.8% and overall sales volumes [...]

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One way to sell a $2 million-plus house in Wellesley

Not that Dean Behrend Construction needs any free advertising from us, but it is kind of interesting how they’re going about trying to find a buyer for one of their latest homes, a 5,400-square footer at 169 Grove St. in Wellesley. As part of the Home of Distinction program, the house (shown here, not actual [...]

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Goodbye Wellesley, hello Nouvelle at Natick

A Wellesley couple, the Lees, snagged the first of 43 condo units at the schmantzy Nouvelle at Natick sold in a fire sale this weekend. The Lees got their 2-bedroom condo for $355K, according to a Boston Herald story, and that’s about half of the last asking price for the unit, part of the complex [...]

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Wellesley not waiting till last minute on St. James spot

The Townsman reports that Wellesley is beginning to explore possible uses for the St. James the Great church parcel on Rte. 9 in the event that the now-5-year vigil to wrest the property from the Archdiocese of Boston doesn’t pan out. Possibilities: The 8 acres could become a single or multi-family plot, or be developed [...]

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Wellesley fares great in Forbes luxury housing index

UPDATE: We initially had this backwards because Forbes had it backwards (though we really should have noticed that, so sorry for confusion). We’ve heard a lot about Wellesley’s housing market bucking negative trends over the past year, and a new Forbes index of housing prices in the 500 most expensive neighborhoods in the U.S. by [...]

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Resolving the case of Wellesley's road to nowhere

Universal Hub reports on a state appeals court case involving a Wellesley homeowner seeking to build a house near a road that doesn’t exist at the Wellesley/Weston town line: In 2002, Robert Carlson bought the house at 107 Manor Ave., and, being a good Wellesleyite, immediately began making plans to tear it down and replace [...]

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Another view of Wellesley's real estate market

Realtor John Prescott blogs about the Globe’s recent rosy outlook on Wellesley’s real estate market vs. the market in Wayland, etc. Prescott says a closer look at the numbers reveals that Wellesley’s market isn’t exactly going gangbusters: “Real estate in Wellesley is wavering…that is the volume and average sale price plunged dramatically during the first [...]

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Update on The Durant

Construction on The Durant, the luxury condo complex being built on the spot of the old Wellesley Inn, is now scheduled for spring, with units expected to be delivered to residents in December of 2010. Back in May, when developers first began publicizing the complex, it was hoped construction would be done by late next [...]

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A family room is born in Wellesley

A Natick construction company documents its progress on a new family room at a house on Suffolk Road in Wellesley. Separately, here’s another Wellesley house that’s a work in progress, as described in a blog.

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