Westhampton records nine deeds but nearly all sale prices go undisclosed

WESTHAMPTON -- Nine property deeds were recorded in Westhampton during the four-week period ending Sept. 12, but only one listed a sale price, leaving most of the month's ownership transfers undocumented for value in the public record.

MARKET OVERVIEW Nine sales were recorded in Westhampton from Aug. 14 through Sept. 12. Of those, only one deed disclosed a sale price: a $66,690 transaction that closed Aug. 14. Because the other eight transactions carry no consideration amount in the registry data, a full price range and median cannot be independently calculated from the sample; the reported range and median both stand at $66,690, reflecting that single disclosed sale. Nine recorded deeds in a four-week span is not an unusually high or low count on its own for a small town the size of Westhampton, but with disclosed pricing on only one of nine transactions, this month's data provides limited grounds for judging whether the market ran active or quiet in dollar terms.

TOP SALES The lone transaction with a disclosed price transferred from Kenneth Andrews to Michael E. Novak and Lynanne M. Novak for $66,690, recorded Aug. 14. The deed record for that sale did not include a street address, and bed, bath and square-footage figures are not available from deed data. The remaining eight recorded transfers, covering 302 Main Road, 41 Edwards Road, 99 Chesterfield Road, 150 Kings Highway, 29 Hathway Road, 284 Northwest Road, 207 Main Road and 75 Reservoir Road, did not disclose a sale price in the registry data and cannot be ranked or reported by value.

NEIGHBORHOOD BREAKDOWN Main Road accounted for two of the nine recorded transactions this period: 302 Main Road, transferred Aug. 25 from Florence Bank to Jennifer E. Nichols, and 207 Main Road, transferred Aug. 17 from Robert Currie to Goodleap LLC. No other street had more than one recorded transfer in this period. Because only one of the nine deeds disclosed a sale price, the sales cannot be meaningfully grouped into price tiers this month.

MARKET NOTES Several of the recorded deeds do not represent traditional arm's-length home sales. The transfer at 29 Hathway Road moved the property from Scott J. Johndrow and Jennifer E. Johndrow to a trust held in both of their names, a within-family trust transfer. Three deeds, at 150 Kings Highway, 284 Northwest Road and 75 Reservoir Road, list "Declaration of Homestead" as the recipient of record rather than a buyer, indicating a homestead filing rather than a change of ownership; the sellers of record on those filings were Brian Paul Foote and Maria Alejandra Holguin, the Timothy M. Daley Revocable Trust, and Linda J. Webster, respectively. The deed at 99 Chesterfield Road named Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. (MERS) as seller, a designation typically associated with a foreclosure or lender-related transfer, with David P. Avakian and Amy E. Avakian recorded as buyers. The deed at 41 Edwards Road recorded a transfer from Valeri Edwards and Gen Edwards to the town of Westhampton. No bed, bath or square-footage data is available in any of the nine records, so no price-per-square-foot or property-type comparisons can be made this period. With eight of nine deeds disclosing no sale price, and several of the nine representing homestead filings, a trust transfer or a lender-related transfer rather than open-market sales, this month's data does not support broader conclusions about Westhampton's housing market direction.

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.