October Sales Prices Span $180,000 To $422,500 In Montague

MONTAGUE -- Thirteen property transfers were recorded at the Franklin County Registry of Deeds for Montague addresses in October, but only three carried a sale price by the time records were compiled. Those three ranged from $180,000 to $422,500, with a median of $248,400.

MARKET OVERVIEW The registry recorded 13 deed transfers in Montague between Oct. 2 and Oct. 31. Of those, three included a sale price: $180,000, $248,400 and $422,500, producing a median of $248,400. The remaining 10 transfers show no price yet, which is typical for recently recorded deeds and usually reflects a data lag of about a week rather than a withheld price. Because fewer than a quarter of the month's transfers have a reported price, the raw count of 13 cannot be meaningfully judged as active or quiet without price data covering the full set.

TOP SALES The three priced sales were: 1 Kostanski Square, Montague, sold for $422,500 on Oct. 5. The deed also references 11 Unity Street, Montague, and 220 Federal Street, Greenfield. Sellers were listed as Federal St Greenfield and Karen I. Larabee; the buyer was William R. Kostanski. 31 Crocker Avenue sold for $248,400 on Oct. 5. The seller was Ella J. Ingraham; the buyer was Greenfield Cooperative Bank. 7 Pinewood Circle sold for $180,000 on Oct. 2. The sellers were April L. Obrien and April L. Eugin; the buyer was Freedom Credit Union.

NEIGHBORHOOD BREAKDOWN No street had more than one priced sale in October. All three priced transactions, Kostanski Square, Crocker Avenue and Pinewood Circle, fell under the $500,000 mark; no sales above that threshold were recorded this period. Ten additional transfers, on Montague Street, Fairway Avenue, Autumn Lane, East Chestnut Hill Road, Millers Falls Road, Fourth Street, High Street, Davis Street, James Avenue and Turners Falls Road, have not yet posted a price.

MARKET NOTES Several October transfers involved lenders or public entities as sellers rather than individual homeowners: Greenfield Savings Bank was the seller on three properties (808 Fairway Avenue, 2 Autumn Lane and 92 Fourth Street); the Montague Town Treasurer was the seller at 62 East Chestnut Hill Road; USA Farmers Home Administration and USA Agriculture were sellers at 123 Montague Street; and Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. and Norwich Commercial Group Inc. were sellers at 114 Millers Falls Road. The buyer at 92 Fourth Street was Franklin Area Survival Center Inc., a nonprofit organization rather than an individual. Two transfers show shared surnames between seller and buyer suggesting family-related transfers: at 8 James Avenue, the estate of Barbara A. Rau transferred to Linda M. Kaeppel and Frederick P. Rau Jr.; the deed for 4 High Street lists the estate of David Peter Thompson as seller, with no buyer name provided in the available data. None of the 13 October transfers were flagged in the data as nominal-consideration transfers.

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.