Conservation land restriction tops Becket's priced sales as most deeds disclose no figure

BECKET -- Ten property transfers were recorded in Becket between June 19 and July 18, but only four of those deeds disclosed a sale price, according to Middle Berkshire Registry of Deeds records, limiting how much the month's filings reveal about the town's housing market.

MARKET OVERVIEW Ten deeds were recorded for the period. Of those, four disclosed a sale price, ranging from $75,000 to $1,250,000, with a median of $287,200 among the priced transactions. The raw count of 10 recorded deeds does not, by itself, indicate whether the market was active or quiet: more than half of the filings were not conventional sales between unrelated buyers and sellers. They included transfers into trusts, two records naming banks as the seller and one naming a bank as the buyer, a special permit filing, and a conservation restriction on land.

TOP SALES The highest-priced transaction was a $1,250,000 conservation restriction on land at 398 Plumb Road, recorded June 25 and filed with the Land Court. The seller of record was listed as "Tyne Rd Conservation Restriction Also Land Court" together with Massachusetts Audubon Society Inc, and the buyer was listed as "Recreation." A property at 550 County Road sold for $382,400 on June 26; the sellers were Michael K. Bruneau and George S. Bruneau, with no buyer listed in the record. A property at 3238 Main Street sold for $192,000 on June 22; sellers Christopher Felker and Aimee Bucciarelli Felker transferred the property to Citizens Bank NA. A Becket property without a listed street address sold for $75,000 on June 29; the seller was the Eogan C. Odonnell Trust, and the buyers were Susan Gerlach and Michael Keller.

NEIGHBORHOOD BREAKDOWN Main Street was the only street with more than one recorded transfer: 609 Main Street (tied to a special permit, price not disclosed) and 3238 Main Street ($192,000, transferred to Citizens Bank NA). All other recorded addresses -- County Road, Plumb Road, Benton Hill Road, Jesters Lane, Parsons Way, South Cove Drive and Jacobs Ladder Road -- each had a single transfer. Among the four disclosed-price sales, two were under $200,000 ($75,000 and $192,000), one fell between $200,000 and $500,000 ($382,400), and one exceeded $1 million ($1,250,000, the Plumb Road conservation restriction).

MARKET NOTES Deed records for this period did not include bed, bath or square-footage figures, so no price-per-square-foot comparison is possible. Three filings named a bank as a party: Greylock Federal Credit Union as seller at 674 Benton Hill Road, Westfield Bank as seller at 18 Parsons Way, and Citizens Bank NA as buyer at 3238 Main Street; only the Main Street transaction disclosed a price. Three other filings listed the same individual as both grantor and grantee, consistent with a transfer into a trust or within a family: 100 Jesters Lane (Sarfraz Asghar Shaikh), 229 South Cove Drive (David Levenfeld and Deborah Rivel transferring to trusts bearing their own names), and 3828 Jacobs Ladder Road (Cecile Roosa retained as a co-grantee alongside Benjamin C. McDonald). None of these three disclosed a price. A filing at 609 Main Street was tied to a special permit, with Becket Town Planning listed as grantee, rather than a conventional property sale.

Recorded Deeds

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

Jun 22 - Jun 28

Jun 29 - Jul 5

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