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HOME IS WHERE THE VALUE IS
BY THOMAS GRILLO
If you purchased a home in
Swampscott a decade ago, give your
neighbor a high-five.
Since 2009, the median price for
a single-family home has swelled by a
whopping 46 percent. A house that cost
$395,500 in 2009 is likely to fetch $577,750
or more today, according to The Warren
Group, the Boston real estate tracker.
Claire Dembowski, a real estate sales
agent at Re/Max Advantage Real Estate
with more than 40 years experience
selling homes in town, said it's easy to
down. But we have quality schools,
there's good parental involvement, and
excellent sports programs."
Consider these numbers from last
year's MCAS test scores. Among 10th
graders, 97 percent scored proficient or
advanced in the English exam, 89 percent
in science, and 90 percent in science, all
well above the state average, according
to the Massachusetts Department of
Elementary & Secondary Education.
Swampscott High School boasted a
graduation rate of 94 percent last year
while nearly 86 percent of its graduates
219 housing permits. The Hanover
Vinnin Square apartment complex on
Paradise Road comprised 184 of those.
But it did not include any affordable
units, according to Swampscott Housing
Production Plan.
The 2016 survey said of the 353
proposed units in the pipeline over the
next few years in nine developments, all
are market rate.
The state has required a minimum of
10 percent of the community's housing
be affordable with deed restrictions since
the Dukakis administration in the 1970s.
$600K
$550K
MEDIAN PRICE
$500K
$450K
$400K
$350K
2009
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Source: The Warren Group
YEAR
see why Swampscott is a good value.
If you follow the MBTA train line from
Boston north, you run into what she calls
the "second ring" of desirable communities
including Cambridge, Somerville,
Medford, Melrose, and Malden, which
have also seen tremendous growth.
"Swampscott is the third ring because
the trains come through here," she said.
"We have always been well-positioned
because there are four ways to get to
Boston: by car, bus, commuter rail and
the Blue Line from Wonderland."
The buyers coming to Swampscott,
she said, are new parents from Boston,
Cambridge and Somerville who are seeking
more space, a backyard, and better schools.
"I always say, we are not the top when
it comes to schools," she said candidly.
"We are not Weston, Wellesley, Wayland,
or Lexington. We are the next group
enrolled in a college or university.
The town has two real estate markets,
Dembowski said. The first are homes
priced from $300,000 to the $800,000,
the rest is the $1 million plus market,
which is quite different, she added.
"There are fewer higher priced homes
and they don't sell as fast," she said.
At press time, there were 23 singlefamily
homes for sale in Swampscott on
the MLS Property Information Network
priced from $415,900 for a six-room
Colonial on Humphrey Street to $8.3
million for a five-bedroom, 11,444-squarefoot
Tudor Colonial on Puritan Lane.
Ten of the homes listed are priced at
$1 million or over. Only four are listed
below $500,000.
Finding an affordable house in
Swampscott is a challenge, say brokers.
Between 2005 and 2014, the town issued
Of Swampscott's 5,795 units, only 212,
or less than 4 percent, meets the criteria,
according to the Department of Housing
and Community Development.
A goal listed in the survey is to provide
seniors with greater housing options.
One project that could be a partial
solution is transforming the shuttered
Machon Elementary School into homes
for elders. B’nai B’rith Housing, a
nonprofit that builds affordable homes
for seniors, has failed to get the funding
to do the conversion for 38 affordable
units on Burpee Road.
Brokers say housing in all price ranges
for all ages is needed to bring relief.
Swampscott buyers are a demanding
clientele, they want good grocery stores,
shops, and medical services, say agents.
"We are very privileged," Dembowski
said. "It's a very good quality of life."