Pelham Property Sales Show Wide Price Gap Amid Limited Disclosure

PELHAM -- Eight property transactions were recorded in Pelham between July 3 and Aug. 1, but only two disclosed a sale price, leaving most of the month's activity difficult to size up in dollar terms.

MARKET OVERVIEW The Hampshire County Registry of Deeds recorded eight transactions involving Pelham properties during the period. Of those, only two carried a disclosed sale price: $60,000 for 19 South Valley Road and $240,000 for 17 Buffam Road, producing a price range of $60,000 to $240,000 and a median of $150,000. Six of the eight transactions did not disclose a sale price, so the overall dollar volume of the month's activity cannot be determined from available records. Eight recorded transactions is a moderate count for the town, but with 75 percent of records lacking price data, the period should be read as data-limited rather than as a clear signal of market strength or weakness.

TOP SALES 17 Buffam Road sold for $240,000, recorded July 7. The sellers were Timothy and Samantha Pachirat; the buyer of record was UMassFive College Federal Credit Union. Bed, bath and square footage figures were not available in the deed record. 19 South Valley Road sold for $60,000, recorded July 21. The sellers were Alisa C. Pearson and Geoffrey S. Hudson; the buyer of record was Florence Bank. Bed, bath and square footage figures were not available in the deed record. No other transactions in the period disclosed a sale price.

NEIGHBORHOOD BREAKDOWN Harkness Road accounted for three of the eight recorded transactions -- more than any other street in the period -- at 35, 40 and 42 Harkness Road, all recorded within three weeks of each other on July 3 and July 24. None of the three disclosed a sale price. By price tier, the two disclosed sales split across a low tier (19 South Valley Road, $60,000) and a mid tier (17 Buffam Road, $240,000), with no disclosed transactions above $240,000. The remaining six properties -- 298 North Valley Road, 35 Harkness Road, 40 Harkness Road, 87 Daniel Shays Highway, 47 Arnold Road and 42 Harkness Road -- carried no disclosed price and cannot be assigned to a tier.

MARKET NOTES Several of the month's recorded documents are not conventional property purchases. The records for 35 and 40 Harkness Road list the grantee as "Declaration of Homestead," indicating those filings are homestead declarations rather than sales to a new owner. The record for 47 Arnold Road lists the grantee as "Decision Regarding Variance," with Pelham's Zoning Board of Appeals named alongside Team Sunshine Construction LLC as grantors -- indicating that filing is a zoning variance decision, not a sale. Florence Bank appears on both sides of transactions during the period: as buyer of 19 South Valley Road for $60,000, and as seller of 298 North Valley Road and 42 Harkness Road, both without disclosed price. Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. is named alongside Arleen J. Herlihy in the record for 87 Daniel Shays Highway, and UMassFive College Federal Credit Union is the named grantee in the Buffam Road record -- both patterns consistent with lender involvement in the recorded transaction, though the deed data does not specify the nature of that involvement. No square footage, bedroom or bathroom data was available for any property in this period, so no price-per-square-foot or property-size comparisons can be made. Property type (single-family, condominium or multi-family) was also not specified in the available records.

Recorded Deeds

Source: Registry of Deeds. Sale amounts shown as recorded; transfers without a disclosed consideration are noted as such.

Jun 29 - Jul 5

Jul 6 - Jul 12

Jul 20 - Jul 26

Jul 27 - Aug 2

Compiled from official town feeds, community organizations, and local press. Outside reporting is attributed inline.