Athol Real Estate

News from Four Columns Realty

Time to get blogging again. Much has happened.

You may be interested to know that Four Columns Realty ranked #1 in Orange for the first half of 2009, just as we did in calendar year 2008.

Thanks to our loyal friends and clients, Four Columns Realty sold more Orange MA real estate than any other real estate office, based on information provided to and compiled by the MLS Property Information Network, Inc., covering the period from January 1, 2009 through June 30, 2009.

Today, Orange, tomorrow, the world - or, at least, Athol.

Here's something else that might interest you. Four Columns Realty has launched a mobile real estate search app.

Our new app lets you to search for property from an iPhone, Blackberry or just about any other smartphone. If you want instant info about a home you're standing in front of, just bring up our app. Install it today!

We're working on new ways to meet your needs. The new Four Columns Realty Twitter feed on our home page gives you our latest updates, plus another way to communicate with us. Follow us on Twitter now.

Finally, we have some interesting market research on how real estate prices in Athol and the North Quabbin Region compare with prices in nearby areas. I'll be blogging about that soon.

Office Open House Saturday

Four Columns Realty Open House

Saturday, May 2, 2009

11 AM - 2 PM

Stop in... Say Hello... Join the Discussions

11 AM

For Sale by Owner? Learn Insider Tips

12 PM

Ins and Outs of Buying Bank-owned Property

1 PM

First Time Homebuyer Credit: How You Can Qualify

Find out more...

Originally posted on the Four Columns Realty Blog

Teaching Tech Skills in Athol MA

In my last post of 2008, I pointed out how Athol High School students are learning about technology from Chris Dawson, a respected authority on education technology who is the Technology Director of the Athol-Royalston Regional School District.

Take a look at the revamped technology curriculum that Chris is proposing for the Athol MA High School.  From Microsoft office to Google Docs, from web design basics to Web 2.0, CSS and XML, from programming to database design, these Athol courses will teach students up-to-date technology skills. Students who graduate from Athol schools will be prepared for today's careers.

I wish I were back in high school.

Originally posted on the Four Columns Realty Blog.

Starrett Cuts Its Work Week

L.S. Starrett Company, Athol's biggest employer, "will reduce its work week for most of the 600 workers at its Athol factory and offices," according to today's Greenfield Recorder.

Ouch! While Starrett deserves credit for keeping everyone on board (although with less hours) instead of socking some of its workers with layoffs, the cutbacks are going to hurt.

The ups and downs of Starrett have been intertwined with the prosperity of Athol for more than a century. Starrett's web site says "it is not uncommon to see devoted generations of toolmakers with 30 or more years of experience" employed in its Athol MA facility. Those of us who have lived here a while know this is true.

Will the big stimulus bill coming out of Washington produce a rebound for companies like Starrett and towns like Athol? Probably not as much as all of us would like. The bill is bloated with wasteful spending, like 200 million dollars for grass replacement on the National Mall.

For so much money, we deserve better.

CSI Athol

Athol law enforcement is up to date. Last week, Athol MA Police Officer Todd Neale and Athol MA Deputy Fire Chief Tom Lozier used satellite technology to track down an allegedly abducted Athol girl.

Using GPS coordinates obtained through the girl's cell phone, they traced the girl to a highway intersection in Virginia. From Athol, Massachusetts, they used Google Street View to scan around the intersection and identify the motel where the girl was being secluded. The Athol police then contacted Virginia police, who went to the motel and found the girl.

Good work, guys!

Read more here, here, here and here.

Athol Ranks #16 in Technology

The Town of Athol ranks #16 in the state in its support for technology development and growth, according the Massachusetts High Technology Council's latest MassTrack municipal rankings.

The High Tech Council ranks all 351 Massachusetts towns "to measure the support of state and local officials for the priorities of the technology economy."

While Athol slipped a bit, from #8 last year, Athol stayed in the top 5% of all Massachusetts towns. Orange ranks #32, placing it in this year's top 10%. (There's a typo in the date on the main rankings page. These rankings were updated in November, 2008, not 2007).

Our friends in Somerville (#73) are astonished. Noting that Cambridge ranks #213, they ask, "How is the home of MIT behind Athol?"

A long time ago, I lived in Somerville. My home was in the Winter Hill section, a gritty neighborhood where they understood towns like Athol. For the benefit of those who have forgotten that there's intelligent life beyond Route 495, let me help you:

• Do you know which of the 3 towns has the highest percentage of its workforce engaged in technology? If you guessed "the home of MIT", you blew it. According to MassTrack, over 28% of Athol's workforce works in technology, compared to a bit more than 22% in Cambridge and less than 10% in Somerville.  

• The tech jobs are close to home, too. According to MassTrack again, the typical Athol worker spends 24.2 minutes commuting to work, only slightly more than the typical Cambridge worker (22.5 minutes) and less than the typical Somerville worker (27.1 minutes).
  

• Athol High School's most recent MCAS scores were 81% in reading proficiency and 77% in math proficiency. That's better than the high schools in Cambridge and Somerville, whose scores failed to crack 70% in either category.  

• Athol High students are learning about technology, not just testing. Chris Dawson, the Technology Director of the Athol-Royalston Regional School District, is a nationally respected authority on education technology.   

• Athol gives you something Cambridge and Somerville lack: sensible real estate values. Just take a look at Athol real estate prices, Orange real estate prices and similar deals in other North Quabbin Region towns.
  

Hey Somerville - Athol is just 86 minutes away. Come on out.

Why It's a Buyer's Market

(Cross-posted from Orange MA Real Estate)

As we approach the end of October, there are 340 single-family homes on the market in the North Quabbin Region, which includes Athol, Erving, New Salem, Orange, Petersham, Phillipston, Royalston, Warwick and Wendell.

These 340 homes have been on the market for an average of 223 days.

The 340 homes for sale in Athol, Orange and the surrounding towns are close to a 21st century high for this date.

The average of 223 days on the market is a clear 21st century high in our region on this date.

That's the supply side. What about demand?

From January 1, 2008 through October 22, 2008, 173 single-family homes in the North Quabbin Region were sold through the MLS. (This number does not include private real estate sales, such as family transactions or for-sale-by owner homes.)

These 173 homes sold in Athol, Orange and the surrounding towns took an average of 191 days to sell.

On average, these 173 homes took twice as long to sell as the 439 homes sold in Athol, Orange and the same surrounding towns in 2004.

If the current rate of sales continues, 2008 will see less homes sold in the North Quabbin Region than in any other year of the 21st century.

Also, if the current rate of sales continues, buyers would take over a year and a half to go through the current inventory of Athol-Orange area homes for sale... even if not a single new listing were to come on the market.

That's slow demand. And with the economy faltering and lenders tightening up, demand is likely to stay slow.

A high supply of homes for sale + a slow demand for homes = a buyer's market. That's how the law of supply and demand applies to real estate.

We are not alone. The buyer's market in Athol MA real estate and Orange MA real estate resembles the real estate buyer's market across most of the USA.

Today, in Athol, in Orange and everywhere, it's important for home buyers and home sellers to be realistic. With unsold homes in high supply and demand reduced by economic stress, the buyer's market is likely to stay with us for a long while.

Note: Four Columns Realty calculated the North Quabbin Region statistics in this post based on information supplied to and compiled by the MLS Property Information Network, Inc., for the periods of time indicated.

The Roots of the Crisis

How did we get into this jam? The Roots of the Crisis offers an answer. Read more about it on our companion site, Orange MA Real Estate.

Athol Schools Are Showing Progress

Do you know that Chris Dawson, the Technology Director of the Athol-Royalston Regional School District, is a nationally respected authority on education technology?

Do you know that the New England Association of School and Colleges restored its unconditional accreditation earlier this year to Athol High School?

Athol MA schools are showing progress and promise. If you live in Athol or Royalston, or if you're thinking about moving to the Athol-Royalston area, that's good news.

Mark This Day

Lou Barnes of Mortgage Credit News wrote on Friday, "Mark this day: the worst of this crisis has passed." It's too soon to say if he's right, but let's hope so. 

Lou Barnes also said, "This crisis is officially public property." He's gotta be right about that. The Federal government, fresh from taking over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, proposes to spend $700,000,000,000 to buy up troubled mortgages - and it may not be enough.

Will the latest actions keep lenders lending and stabilize real estate prices in towns like Athol and Orange, where the average home price has dropped 20% since 2005? That's what's supposed to happen, but don't break out the party hats. While the worst may have passed for now, we are still in uncharted territory and we still have a long way to go.