Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Town By Town: Location and good schools make for high-end living

Upper Makefield's residential real estate prices are consistently among the highest in the eight-county Philadelphia region.

On Keith Lane in Upper Makefield. The township limits public water and sewer, and with them tract developments.  ( DAVID M WARREN / Staff Photographer )
On Keith Lane in Upper Makefield. The township limits public water and sewer, and with them tract developments. ( DAVID M WARREN / Staff Photographer )Read more

One in a continuing series spotlighting real estate markets in the region's communities.

Upper Makefield's residential real estate prices are consistently among the highest in the eight-county Philadelphia region.

Just look at the most recent numbers, based on third-quarter Trend Multiple Listing Service data supplied by Pamela A. Croke, chief executive officer of the Bucks County Association of Realtors.

Based on a minimum of 10 sales in the quarter, the average sale price in the Bucks County township was $773,735, compared with $663,843 in the year-ago three-month period.

In some of the last 25 years, Upper Makefield sat atop the price pack. More recently, New Hope Borough and Solebury Township have given it a run for the money in Bucks County.

The chief reason for Upper Makefield's consistently high home prices - not taking away from its beauty or history - is its location. Not only is it in the Council Rock School District, but it also is on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware.

George Washington considered Upper Makefield a good place to begin a boat trip across to New Jersey.

Today, real estate agents say, homeowners in the Garden State fed up with their own battle with Trenton over taxation are fleeing across the river to the Pennsylvania shore.

"A lot of people from New Jersey" buy here, says Weichert Realtors agent Concetta Stefani. Based in Weichert's Yardley office, Stefani and her husband, Anthony, live and sell real estate here.

The savings New Jersey buyers realize in property levies allow them to buy larger and more expensive houses with more land in Upper Makefield.

"We also handle a lot of relos," she says, "who chose this side of the river because they also recognize the commute to jobs in Princeton or New York is easy."

Martin Millner, of Coldwell Banker Hearthside in Yardley, is licensed in both states and says New Jersey buyers are a "huge factor" in the township's market these days.

"I have a client who is selling a house in Hopewell Junction and buying in Upper Makefield," Millner says, not only because property taxes are lower, but also "because Pennsylvania treats retirement income much better than New Jersey does."

A 5,000-plus-square-foot house on 1.8 acres in Upper Makefield listed for $1.17 million has an annual property-tax bill of $16,669, Trend MLS data show.

A 2,800-plus-square-foot condo for sale in Princeton for $760,000 has a tax bill of $16,809 a year, recent listings show.

Yet Sharon Ermel Spadaccini, of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Fox & Roach Realtors' New Hope office, says taxes in Upper Makefield are higher, for example, than in Solebury, which is in a smaller school district.

For an $820,000 home in Solebury, "one could pay taxes of $11,200, while the similar home in Upper Makefield could be $17,500," Spadaccini says, adding that "if the same house in Princeton costs $24,000 a year, it is all relative."

The still-somewhat-rural township, convenient to I-95 and trains in Trenton to Manhattan and Center City, remains a big lure for New York buyers, "especially Fortune 500 executives," Millner says.

Another reason for Upper Makefield's higher-price real estate, he says: the township's continued efforts to limit public water and sewer, and with them tract developments. Septic systems and wells prevail here.

"Most builders spend a lot of money on buying and developing ground, so if doing so costs $600,000," he says, "the houses have to cost $2 million or more."

Much current building tends to be on a smaller, custom scale, agents say.

The Stefanis point to Creek's Bend on Eagle Road by Zaveda Custom Homes of Doylestown, long active in the township. It features just six homes, starting at $2.4 million, on 5- to 12-acre lots.

Toll Bros. is building an over-55 community of 96 carriage homes, called the Enclave at Upper Makefield, starting in the mid-$500,000 range, says Rebecca Kamchatov, a Toll marketing specialist.

The first weekend the models were open, 12 contracts were signed, said Millner, who sits on Toll's Realtor advisory board.

Of the 119 active listings in Upper Makefield, prices range from $325,000 to $4,235,000, Spadaccini says, while average settled prices fall between $230,000 and $2.1 million.

Not everything in Upper Makefield is big and costs more than $1 million - a price segment that didn't fare well in the real estate downturn despite this town's high-end reputation.

Townhouses in the 28-year-old Heritage Hills community in Washington Crossing are attainable in the low $400,000s, says Stefani, while some older developments offer singles with four bedrooms and 21/2 baths in need of "some work" for $450,000 to $500,000.

"There are even couples with younger children who are two-paycheck families that are buying in the $800,000-to-$1 million range," she says, adding that prices have come back 4 percent to 5 percent since the downturn.

Of the 29 homes in their older development, Meadowbrook, four were sold in four months over the summer, Anthony Stefani says.

Upper Makefield, Spadaccini notes, is "a highly sought-after address."

Town By Town: Upper Makefield By the Numbers

Population: 8,190 (2010).

Median income: $102,759 (2010).

Area: 21.5 square miles.

Settlements in the last three months: 38.

Homes for sale: 119.

Days on market: 117.

Median price: $562,500.

Housing stock: Large homes on large lots; historic houses, townhouses; over-55 units; new custom homes.

School district: Council Rock.

SOURCES: U.S. Census Bureau; City-Data.com; Sharon Ermel Spadaccini, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Fox & Roach Realtors

EndText

215-854-2472 @alheavens