BOWES Real Estate Blog

Buyers Interested in Walkability… Arlington Has It!

BOWES — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 20:35:04 +0000

Park the car and put on the walking shoes. Homebuyers are ranking a home’s walking distance to schools, stores, neighborhood parks, and more as high on the list of influences to buy a home. Buyers are interested in purchasing a house that allows them to get around without the car.

According to one study of 90,000 homes in the U.S., being able to walk to nearby amenities can increase the value of the home by as much as $3,000 and if there is “location efficiency”—a calculation that measures transportation costs—the number of foreclosures in a neighborhood is impacted. “For a lot of Americans, the whole problem of traffic congestion and having to drive everywhere to do almost anything has made other choices more attractive,” Kaid Benfield, director of the Washington-based Natural Resources Defense Council’s Smart Growth Program told the Wall Street Journal.

Other influences increasing the appeal of a home’s walkabilty are two demographics: the baby boomers and the first-time homebuyers. Both of these groups don’t want to be isolated. They want the convenience of having stores and restaurants close by. Also, unstable oil prices, make parking the car a well-liked idea.

Does this mean everyone is moving to the city? Not at all. The home doesn’t have to be in the heart of downtown but if the home has walking-distance amenities, it’s likely to attract more buyers. With that in mind, sellers should pay close attention to how their homes are being marketed. A website called Walk Score, (read my column, Can Walk Score Improve the Value of Your Home?) figures out the distance from any address to various amenities. However, it is a “as the crow flies” measure. In other words, it won’t tell you how easy the terrain is, such as if there are hills or rivers that must be walked around because they’re lacking a bridge. The website developers are looking into making some adjustments to account for these issues. The website does give buyers an idea of how close a home is to stores and restaurants but it doesn’t provide information on safety, upkeep of the neighborhood, whether there are sidewalks or other street designs.

Sellers who want to emphasize their home’s walkability can use the Walk Score site to calculate their home’s rating. Then they can use neighborhood pictures to show the ease of access to amenities, the topography, and couple that with detailed information about the area to gain more interest from buyers. Topography is a vital influence in determining if people will actually walk in a particular neighborhood. If there are 4 lanes of traffic and lots of congestion, even though the distance is short to a store, many will opt to drive. Being specific in your marketing materials (especially online) about the proximity to desired locales, but also the ease of pedestrian access, may be a selling point that gets buyers to physically drop by your home for an in-person look rather than just perusing it via the Internet. So while many sellers are used to talking about good schools and low crime in their neighborhoods, it seems buyers now want more—they want a walk in the park that’s going to take them to the corner market, the dry cleaners, restaurants, the pharmacy, and back home using an accessible pedestrian route.

By Phoebe Chongchua
Copyright © 2010 Realty Times. All Rights Reserved.

Arlington MA Home Sales – How Are We Doing?

BOWES — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:55:59 +0000

Now five months into the year, we are able to make some meaningful observations about the Arlington real estate market.

The news is quite positive. Sales of singles, multi’s and condo’s are all up dramatically over 2009. Additionally, we are witnessing a slight increase in values for the first time in several years. The chart analyzes the three property types and summarizes all sales data.

You may wonder why I am more impressed with the sizable increase in sales, than the price increase. The answer is that the increase in the number of sales reflects a change in buyer confidence about the economy, a sense that prices have bottomed and a recognition that with fixed rate mortgages under 5%, buyers are beginning to appreciate that locking-in a mortgage rate for thirty years may save more money than trying to guess when prices have reached their absolute bottom.

There are other factors, not the least of which is pent-up demand. Buyers have been waiting on the sidelines and putting their lives on hold. They are through waiting and are back in the market.

The other factor was the availability of the Federal Tax Credit. Although I do not feel that it was a major factor locally, there is no doubt that it had its influences and that we will continue to see those influences in market data through 6/30/2010. By 8/31/2010, we will have a better opportunity to assess the results.

As I mention frequently, you must be careful when analyzing real estate date. We are almost never selling the same homes a year later, and, just a few very high priced, or very low priced homes can affect the results.

Home Improvements That Make Sense

BOWES — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:18:51 +0000

From the Boston Globe:

Want a 30 percent return on a home improvement project? Replace your front door! Click to read more suggestions

Arlington Named Green Community by State

BOWES — Tue, 25 May 2010 19:56:18 +0000

From the Boston Globe:

Getting cities and towns to shift toward clean energy was such a cornerstone of Massachusetts’ 2008 energy legislation that the law is named The Green Communities Act. Click here to read the rest of this article and find out which towns were named Green Communities.

BOWES Pennell & Thompson Celebrates 65 Years – 1945-2010

BOWES — Wed, 12 May 2010 18:39:51 +0000

As World War II ended, two returning servicemen, Gordon Thompson and Walter Pennell joined forces and formed what has become Arlington’s most venerable real estate company.

For sixty-five years, the foundation of ethics, integrity, honor and trust, are the basis for every transaction and customer experience. Gordon and Walter grew their business, one satisfied customer at a time.

Walter Pennell, Bob Bowes, Frank Bowes, Gordon Thompson

Guided by that same set of principles, they would be amazed to see how their business has evolved. We are on the cutting-edge of all real estate companies. We are driven to be the best that we can be. Our mantra is “we reinvent ourselves every year” and our sales and support teams are the most knowledgeable, best trained and best equipped in the industry.

We have created an award winning website, with the best search and mapping available. Our customers love it and we add new customers every day. Last year, our site was named as the best website nationally by our franchisor and named the #1 website in Massachusetts, by the Mass. Assoc. of Realtors. Google Analytics tracks our site and we surpass our peer groups in every category. Sales in recent years have grown exponentially. We now out-list and out-sell our number one and number two competitors—combined.

We have created a remarkable customer service platform. Several years ago, we retained an independent, third party company that evaluates every one of our customers, after the transaction. We post the results of every survey on our website to be read and reviewed by all. We proudly report that our customer satisfaction rating is over 99%. Also, in 2009, we received the award for the # 1 customer satisfaction rating in North America.

We are proud of our heritage, our team and our accomplishments. And, without hesitation, we are most proud of our customer satisfaction rating. On a personal note, I believe that our founding fathers would be very proud of our stewardship of their 65 year old company.

Bob Bowes