Wendell deed prices stay hidden as only one of seven sales discloses cost

WENDELL -- The Franklin County Registry of Deeds recorded seven property transfers in Wendell between Aug. 14 and Sept. 12, but only one listed a sale price, limiting what can be said about the town's current market values.

MARKET OVERVIEW Seven deeds were recorded in the four-week period. Of those, only one, the Sept. 10 transfer from Kathleen C. Quinlan and Mark J. Stetz to Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust Inc., disclosed a sale price: $240,000. With just one of seven sales reporting a price, the recorded range and median both stand at $240,000, but that figure reflects a single transaction rather than a broad sample of the market. The raw count of seven recorded transfers indicates deed activity was ongoing in Wendell during the period; no comparison to prior months is possible from this dataset.

TOP SALES The only transaction with a disclosed price was the Sept. 10 sale of a Wendell property from Kathleen C. Quinlan and Mark J. Stetz to Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust Inc. for $240,000. No street address was listed in the deed record. Bed, bath and square footage figures are not available from deed records for this or any other sale in the period. The remaining six recorded transfers did not disclose a sale price:

• 127 Wendell Depot, sold Sept. 11, from New England Power Co. and the Massachusetts Commission on Conservation and Recreation; price not disclosed.
• 270 Wendell Depot Road, sold Sept. 10, from Wesley Scott Cassels and Alice Forehand; price not disclosed.
• 140 West St., sold Sept. 9, from Donna Andrews to Robert Lafrance and Sara C. Hsiang; price not disclosed.
• 264 Wendell Depot Road, sold Sept. 8, from the Franklin County Regional Housing Authority and Redevelopment A to Anna M. C. B. Hartjens; price not disclosed.
• 39 Lockes Village Road, sold Aug. 21, from Stephen Broll to Brian Strauss and Samantha Strauss; price not disclosed.

NEIGHBORHOOD BREAKDOWN Wendell Depot Road saw the most recorded activity of any street, with three transfers in the period: 127 Wendell Depot (Sept. 11), 270 Wendell Depot Road (Sept. 10) and 264 Wendell Depot Road (Sept. 8). Locke Hill Road and Lockes Village Road, two separate streets with similar names, each recorded one transfer: 174 Locke Hill Road (Aug. 14) and 39 Lockes Village Road (Aug. 21). West Street recorded one transfer, at 140 West St. (Sept. 9). One sale, the $240,000 Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust purchase, did not include a street address in the deed record. Because only one sale disclosed a price, transfers cannot be grouped into price tiers.

MARKET NOTES Several of the period's transfers involved institutional or public entities rather than private buyers and sellers alone. New England Power Co. and the Massachusetts Commission on Conservation and Recreation appear as sellers on the 127 Wendell Depot transfer; the Franklin County Regional Housing Authority and an entity listed as "Redevelopment A" appear as sellers on the 264 Wendell Depot Road transfer; and Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust Inc., a land conservation organization, is the buyer in the period's only disclosed-price sale. The Aug. 14 transfer of 174 Locke Hill Road lists the seller as "Dunn Dianna Larae Est" and "Dunn Dianna Est," both under the Dunn name, consistent with an estate transfer; no buyer was listed in the record. Deed records for this period do not indicate whether properties are single-family homes, condominiums or multi-family, and none include square footage, so no price-per-square-foot comparison is possible.

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.