Only One of 10 West Stockbridge Deeds Carries a Recorded Price So Far

WEST STOCKBRIDGE -- Ten property transfers were recorded at the Southern Berkshire Registry of Deeds for West Stockbridge between Sept. 11 and Oct. 10, but sale prices have posted for only one of them so far, a reminder that price data typically trails the recording date by about a week.

MARKET OVERVIEW

Ten deeds were recorded in the period. Only one, the Sept. 17 transfer of 4 Lenox Rd. at $536,000, carries a recorded sale price so far; the other nine show price not yet available. Because only a single price has posted, the $536,000 figure is both the low and the high of the available data and also stands as the median, but it reflects one transaction, not the month as a whole. Judged on raw deed count alone, 10 recordings in a four-week span is a reasonably active pace for a small town, though no conclusion about pricing trends can be drawn until more figures appear in the registry's data.

TOP SALES

4 Lenox Rd. sold for $536,000 on Sept. 17. Seller Brett Essenter transferred the property to Pittsfield Cooperative Bank, which is listed as the buyer. Bed, bath and square footage figures are not available from deed records.

No other sale in the period has a recorded price yet. The nine pending transactions are: 80 West Center Rd. (Sept. 29); 0 Albany Rd. (Sept. 28); an additional West Stockbridge parcel without a listed street address, recorded the same day with the same parties as 0 Albany Rd. (Sept. 28); 16 Cobb Rd. (Sept. 24); 7 Swamp Rd. (Sept. 24); 20 Moscow Rd. (Sept. 24); 88 Pixley Hill Rd. Lot 2 (Sept. 23); 48 Swamp Rd. (Sept. 21); and 220 Great Barrington Rd. (Sept. 15). Prices for these are expected to appear in the registry's records in the coming days.

NEIGHBORHOOD BREAKDOWN

Swamp Road saw two separate transfers in the period: 48 Swamp Rd. on Sept. 21 and 7 Swamp Rd. on Sept. 24. No other street had more than one recorded transfer. With price data available for only one of the 10 deeds, a breakdown by price tier isn't possible this period; the single priced sale, $536,000, would fall in the $500,000-to-$1 million range.

MARKET NOTES

Several entries in this period's data are not conventional arm's-length home sales. The Sept. 24 transfer at 16 Cobb Rd. moved the property from Michael and Marie Schaeffer to the Schaeffer Family Trust, with Marie Schaeffer listed as trustee, a within-family trust transfer. The Sept. 29 deed for 80 West Center Rd. lists Diversified Trust Co. as a trustee seller alongside Nancy Cox Howell. The Sept. 23 transfer of 88 Pixley Hill Rd. Lot 2 lists Massachusetts Electric Co. and Verizon New England Inc. as buyers, consistent with a utility easement or right-of-way rather than a residential sale.

Banks appear on both sides of the ledger this period. Operative Bank and TD Bank NA/TD Banknorth NA are listed as sellers on the Albany Road parcels and 220 Great Barrington Rd., respectively, typically indicating bank-owned property changing hands. Conversely, the period's only priced sale, 4 Lenox Rd., lists Pittsfield Cooperative Bank as the buyer rather than the seller. The deed records do not indicate the reason for any of these arrangements.

Two deeds recorded Sept. 28 (0 Albany Rd. and a second parcel listed only as "West Stockbridge, MA") share the same seller, Operative Bank, and the same buyers, Christopher J. and Heidi P. Fabino, suggesting a multi-parcel transaction recorded as separate deeds.

With nine of 10 transfers still awaiting price data, a fuller picture of September's market, including an accurate range and median, should emerge as the registry updates its records in the coming week.

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.