Town By Town: Diverse housing, corporate headquarters, multiple highways lure buyers

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

Horsham is "a little different market" when compared with surrounding communities, veteran real estate agent Gary Segal says.

For one thing, he notes, even in the off-season that runs from just before Thanksgiving to a week after Super Bowl Sunday, the market here is "fairly hot."

Says Segal: "I sold a couple of real good ones" - including newly constructed houses, which command the top prices in any market - "that brought the second-highest price in Horsham this year to a [relocation] for Teva Pharmaceutical Industries."

Sales in the last three months topped 90, almost 24 percent higher than in the same period in 2013, while adjacent Upper Dublin saw a decline of nearly 12 percent in the same period, according to the Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Fox & Roach HomExpert Market Report.

From January until mid-December 2014, 275 houses sold in Horsham, with the majority priced below $500,000 and prices averaging $344,000, up from $324,000 in the same period the previous year, data provided by Segal and the HomExpert report show.

One big reason for that is Horsham's diverse housing stock, including several large townhouse communities.

"There are a lot of townhouses that are less expensive than in surrounding communities, and rentals as well," says Marion Freedman, a longtime agent with Re/Max Services in Blue Bell.

"The prices are attractive to first-time buyers," says Freedman, who adds that the range for residential sales in Horsham in recent months is $150,000 to $1 million. Median price is $270,000, up from $267,000 in 2013, the HomExpert data indicate.

Currently, the median list price is $293,000, she says. Time on market averages 92 days.

At the moment, there isn't that much on the market, just 82 properties, says Diane Williams, of Weichert Realtors in Blue Bell. Eighteen homes sell each month, on average, with a four-month price-absorption rate.

About 5 percent of the total for-sale inventory is distressed, Freedman says - a fairly standard post-downturn figure for short sales and foreclosures in the four suburban counties around Philadelphia.

"There are really some very large townhouse communities," Segal says. "Many are 25 to 30 years old, and those for sale in Saw Mill Valley are in the $200,000 range."

Williams mentions Brookwood and Sawyer's Creek among townhouse communities. In addition, she says, "the desirable" Talamore Golf Community has high-end townhouses, priced at $370,000 to $450,000, and singles from $540,000 to $750,000.

Rental townhouse complexes include Dreshertowne, which is managed by Toll Bros., and Hilltop Townhomes.

One of Horsham's 16 parks, the 191-acre Graeme Park, is the site of an 18th-century governor's mansion. Yet Freedman notes that "there is no historic village of older houses, as in a lot of other communities in Montgomery and Bucks Counties."

Though there are many older developments - single-family homes and townhouses both - new construction has surged here since the real estate market began to recover in earnest in late 2012.

National luxury-home builder Toll Bros., which has its corporate headquarters in Horsham, is putting up estate homes on lots of one-quarter to one-third of an acre at Horsham Valley Estates on Babylon Road, Segal says.

Prices range from $580,000 to $895,000 for single-family houses of 2,798 to 3,794 square feet, Williams says.

Higher-end communities in Horsham include Greystone, built by Gigliotti Group, which sells up in the million-dollar range, Williams says.

Major developments are being built in adjacent municipalities "where there is still a lot of buildable land," Segal says. But other than Toll's houses, what you find in Horsham are new projects of three or four lots scattered around town, he says.

"Small developers are either starting to build or waiting for lots to be approved," Segal says. "Toll Bros. had the reserves to buy land during the downturn. The others passed on the opportunities to buy because they didn't, and the land today is expensive."

One thing you notice about Horsham, whether you enter from Fort Washington up Dreshertown Road or along Welsh Road from east to west, is how the landscape changes every couple of minutes.

That's because of the large number of corporate headquarters and shopping centers, which Segal and Freedman say keeps property taxes lower than in many other Montgomery County communities.

Among the companies based here are Bimbo Bakeries, Janssen Biotech, Penn Mutual, Benjamin Obdyke, and Nutrisystem.

Proximity to major highways such as the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Routes 309 and 611 make Horsham convenient to just about everywhere, Williams says.

The only drawback to having so many corporate headquarters? Freedman speaks from the experience of last winter:

"It is especially a problem when all the employees are let out of work at the same time to get ahead of the storm."

215-854-2472 @alheavens