This is the time of the year when homes and properties are starting to look their best. Trees and flowers are blooming, thus allowing an element of privacy and helping shield noise from busy roadways. The  grass is filling in and looking more and more green each day. The sunlight is casting a gorgeous hue on all upon which it shines. Late April and early May is an ideal time to sell a house….

And this is the perfect segue to my next point – my twice-monthly Pinnacle Report covering the Weston, MA real estate market…. We saw a very strong two weeks of market activity in Weston – 19 single family homes came on the market, and 14 sold.* This is the highest number of new listings since March 2011.  And according to my records, we’ve never had this many sold listings since I started doing the Weston Pinnacle Report in January 2010. These high numbers are a bit surprising given that school vacation week took place during this time frame. Our inventory (104) is fairly consistent with our inventory from this time last year (107). Here’s to a continued healthy Spring market.

To get the details on the market stats, please click Weston-Pinnacle-Report-4-16-2012-4-29-2012. And for more information about the real estate market in Weston, Wellesley, Wayland and the surrounding towns or if you are considering selling your home, please contact me, Lisa Williams (781-267-2844 or www.homesalesbylisa.com), to answer any questions or for a complimentary home appraisal.

* Sold means “pending/under agreement” and not yet closed.

The Webster/Goodale House at 19 Gypsy Trail in Weston, MA was built circa 1898 as a summer hunting lodge and is the oldest house in the Webster Hill area. Located in the northeast corner of Weston, the Webster Hill Area was developed in the 1910s and 1920s and is one of the topographical high points in Weston. (In fact, one can enjoy seasonal views of the Boston skyline from the home.) Webster Hill takes its name from Frank G. Webster, a banker with the firm of Kidder Peabody in Boston.

Around 1911, the Webster hunting lodge was rented for the summer to author Arthur Stanwood Pier, who wrote for Youth’s Companion and was instrumental in promoting the Boy Scouts. It was purchased in about 1913 by Margaret and Francis Goodale, who enlarged and remodeled the lodge into a year-round residence in the Colonial Revival style. Later remodeling and expansion resulted in a grand yet comfortable and gracious residence. The main entrance, located on the south facade of the main block, is marked by a handsome Colonial Revival entablature.

This special home features the charm and fine detail that the history suggests but is beautifully updated for today. Specifically, there are eight fireplaces, beautifully-beamed ceilings in the living and dining rooms, gorgeous hardwood floors and an especially unique rear stairway with two points of entry from the first floor. Some of the recent additions and enhancements include connecting the carriage house to the main house thus creating a gallery with natural slate flooring and beautiful mosaic tile work, renovating the family room and kitchen, redesigning and landscaping the property, building new front and rear decks and extensively upgrading the systems and utilities.

19 Gypsy Trail in Weston, MA is priced at $2,500,000.  For more information or to see the property, please contact the listing agent, Lisa Williams (781-267-2844 or www.homesalesbylisa.com). And click here for a complimentary search of the MLS real estate listings where you will have access to all homes currently on the market in Weston, Wellesley,  Wayland, Needham, Dover and surrounding communities.

Sometimes you hit the jackpot, and you buy a house with a perfectly-perfect, level and expansive backyard…. The kind of backyard in which you can play a game of football or soccer with the family and neighbors, put in your own ice hockey rink for the winter, install a fun play set for the kids, display all kinds of tree and plant specimens, have lavish outdoor parties with all of your closest friends or simply just take in the beauty of its expansiveness on a daily basis. These backyard uses, however, assume that you want to keep your perfectly-perfect backyard as it is. But what if you don’t? What if you want to make some changes to your backyard so that you can use it for specific recreational purposes.  And so you install a tennis court, sports court or pool (of course this assumes that you don’t have a septic system located directly under your backyard). The bottom line is that the possibilities are endless however you choose to use and enjoy your perfectly-perfect backyard.

The answer to this question might change, however, when considered from a re-sale perspective, especially if you buy your home knowing that you will be selling it again in the very short term. The optimal sales objective is to have your home and land appeal to as many potential buyers as possible. You already know where I’m going with this….  And so a pool, for example, may not appeal to families with babies and toddlers. Similarly a tennis court may not appeal to those who don’t play tennis and a sports court may not appeal to empty nesters. This is all well and good – and true t00 – yet there is something to be said for enjoying your property just how you want no matter whether you plan to sell your home in two or 20 years….

From my own personal perspective, I am lucky enough to have an almost-perfect, level and expansive backyard.  The reason it’s almost-perfect rather than perfectly-perfect is because my septic system is located beneath it, and so my possibilities are limited….  But what about you?  What are your thoughts on this fun-to-ponder subject? Would you keep your perfectly-perfect backyard as it is because you simply love it that way not to mention that you’ll get the added benefit of appealing to the widest array of buyers as possible when you eventually sell your home? Or would you put in a sport court for your kids who are avid basketball players or a pool because your family loves to have neighborhood pool parties? I can’t wait to hear….

For more information about the real estate market in Weston, Wellesley, Wayland and the surrounding towns or if you are considering selling your home, please contact me, Lisa Williams (781-267-2844 or www.homesalesbylisa.com), to answer any questions or for a complimentary home appraisal.

I have been waiting for this day for years – a CVS/pharmacy that is literally a three-minute drive from my house (I timed it this morning), and it just opened its door today. Now instead of a 10-minute drive to the nearest pharmacy and fully-loaded convenience store, it’s just a mere ‘hop skip and a jump’ for me to get all these essential goodies. Located at 25 Washington Street in Wellesley, MA, where Grossman’s once was, this new CVS is part of the Waterstone at Wellesley development project. Store hours are daily from 7 a.m. – 10 p.m., and pharmacy hours are 8 a.m. – 10 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Here’s to shopping conveniently and happily – enjoy….

For more information about the real estate market in Weston, Wellesley, Wayland and the surrounding towns or if you are considering selling your home, please contact me, Lisa Williams (781-267-2844 or www.homesalesbylisa.com), to answer any questions or for a complimentary home appraisal.

For those of you who love market stats*…click here – April 1-15 2012 Solds in Weston MA – to see information on the single-family homes that sold/closed in the first half of April 2012 in Weston, MA.

For the first time since the first half of February 2012, all of our market figures in this two-week time period were up from those in the same two-week period last year. This was due in large part to our number of solds which was double for this year’s time period (8) vs. last year’s (4). Our market volume for these two weeks was $11,623,523 vs. $5,775,000 for the same two weeks last year, and the median price was $1,227,000 this year vs. $1,123,762 last year.

And as was the case with my last sold report, our year-to-date market volume number (as of April 15) is the only metric that is down ($45,657,878 in 2012 vs. $48,911 in 2011) - still skewed from the two very high-end sales in March 2011. Our number of year-to-date sold properties is higher this year than last (28 vs. 20) as is our year-to-date median price ($1,415,415 this year vs. $1,309,000 last year).

Finally, there was one land sale for the first half of April 2012 – 72 & 84 Love Lane, 6.84 acres for $800,000. (Note that the original list price for this land in December 2010 was $1,550,000).

As always, I hope you enjoy this analysis, and please let me know if you have an interest in learning more about other market stats so I can provide this additional data for you. Also for more information about the real estate market in Weston, Wellesley, Wayland and the surrounding towns or if you are considering selling your home, please contact me, Lisa Williams (781-267-2844 or www.homesalesbylisa.com), to answer any questions or for a complimentary home appraisal.

* These market figures are based on information provided to and compiled by Pinergy/MLS Property Information Network, Inc.