South Hadley Sale Prices Cluster Near $350,000 Despite $750,000 Top Filing

SOUTH HADLEY -- Eight property transfers were recorded at the Hampshire County Registry of Deeds for South Hadley addresses between Aug. 28 and Sept. 26, but only three carried a sale price by the time records closed, and the period's highest-dollar filing was a utility department's purchase of a commercial parcel rather than a home sale.

MARKET OVERVIEW Three of the eight recorded deeds carried a sale price as of this reporting: $750,000, $354,050 and $350,000, for a range of $350,000 to $750,000 and a median of $354,050. The remaining five transfers, covering 33 Kimberly Drive, 26 Midway Street, 195 Woodbridge Street, and two separate entries at 55 Alvord Place, had no price recorded. Sale prices typically post to the registry within about a week of a deed's recording, so the gap reflects data timing rather than withheld information. With only eight total recorded instruments for the period, and roughly half representing non-purchase filings such as homestead declarations and an estate tax affidavit rather than open-market sales, there is no comparable prior-period figure on hand to judge the raw count as more or less active than usual.

TOP SALES The highest-priced filing was 65 Old Lyman Road, which sold for $750,000 on Aug. 28. Seller Big Y Foods Inc. transferred the parcel to the South Hadley Electric Light Department. The second-highest was 55 Alvord Place, Alvord Place Community Unit 55, which sold for $354,050 on Aug. 28; sellers Raymond J. Ostendorf and John Miller transferred the unit to Florence Bank. The third was 30 Applewood Lane, which sold for $350,000 on Aug. 28; sellers James A. Mazza and Laura Ann Fournier transferred the property to Citizens Bank NA. Bed, bath and square-footage figures are not available from deed records for any of the three.

NEIGHBORHOOD BREAKDOWN Alvord Place accounted for three of the eight recorded transfers, more than any other street in the period. Beyond the $354,050 unit sale listed above, a separate Unit 55 transfer moved from Leo M. Roberts and Steven P. Roberts to the town of South Hadley, and a related Unit 55 filing from the Leo M. Roberts estate was recorded as an affidavit regarding estate tax. No other street had more than one recorded transfer in this period. Among the three deeds carrying a price, two fell under $500,000, the Alvord Place unit sale and Applewood Lane, and one exceeded $500,000, the Old Lyman Road parcel.

MARKET NOTES Of the eight recorded instruments, only three reflect a conventional sale with a price attached; the rest are transfers to banks, a municipal department, or filings tied to homestead and estate matters. Two of the three priced sales list a bank as buyer, Florence Bank and Citizens Bank NA. Two entries, 33 Kimberly Drive and 195 Woodbridge Street, were recorded as declarations of homestead rather than sales. The 26 Midway Street entry lists Service Finance Co. as buyer, consistent with a financing-related filing rather than a purchase. The second 55 Alvord Place entry was recorded as an affidavit regarding estate tax, tied to the same Roberts family name as the adjoining Unit 55 transfer to the town. No condominium, single-family or multi-family classification is provided in the deed data, so property-type mix cannot be broken out beyond what is described above.

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.