Town By Town: Low taxes, sought-after schools

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

Holidays are special in small towns. Some go all out for Fourth of July, with fireworks. In some, Thanksgiving is a favorite, with Santa arriving by fire truck.

In West Grove, Memorial Day gets the attention.

"There's a big parade and speeches, and the whole community joins in," says Jill Callahan, an agent with Coldwell Banker Preferred in Media, who has lived in the southern Chester County borough for 18 years.

The parade begins at Avon Grove High School and ends at Memorial Plaza on East Evergreen Street for speeches and ceremonies. Afterward, everyone heads over to West Grove Presbyterian Church for hot dogs and soda, Callahan says.

While you're waiting for the start of next year's festivities, be mindful that Memorial Day is just one thing that makes one-square-mile West Grove, 18 miles from Wilmington and 34 from Philadelphia, very special.

The Avon Grove School District, which West Grove shares with five townships and Avondale Borough, is a magnet for home buyers, including a large number of corporate employees relocating to the Philadelphia-Wilmington area.

"I do a lot of relocation business," Callahan says, "with people coming from all over the country to work in Newark and Wilmington, and even in Philadelphia, which is a 45-minute drive.

"Their goal is Avon Grove," she says.

"It is a good district, among the top 100 in the state," says Barbara M. Mastronardo, an agent with Weichert Realtors in Media. "West Grove is the least-expensive real estate market in the Avon Grove school system.

"If you are looking for $1 million homes, that's Penn Township, not West Grove," Mastronardo says, adding that a lot of people move to the Avon Grove district from Delaware County because property taxes are lower.

"They don't seem to mind the longer commute to Philadelphia," she says.

For the 16 active listings, which include four condos, prices range from $77,900 to $399,000 for a six-bedroom, 41/2-bath single-family detached home. Three listings are foreclosures, and two are short sales.

There are six pending transactions ranging in price from $94,000 to $222,000, while the 14 houses that have gone to settlement in the last six months sold for $90,000 to $339,000, she says.

"The houses are more affordable price-wise, but without a lot of land," says Mastronardo. The average price of those 14 houses was $190,000, but the median was $157,000, she notes. (Median is the middle number; half the houses sold for more, half for less.)

Both agents say that although West Grove sustained a price hit in the real estate downturn comparable to that in other communities, sale prices today are 88 percent to 90 percent of list price, according to Mastronardo.

It was the school district and two children, then ages 3 and 5, that brought Callahan to West Grove and a 136-year-old Victorian on West Evergreen in the middle of the borough.

"My house was 'the doctor's house,' " Callahan says, "so everyone in town knows where it is."

In addition to the school district, buyers are attracted to the older housing stock here - not only large Victorian-era single-family houses, but also bungalows, rowhouses, and twins, she says.

Influenced "by all of the do-it-yourself shows on television," Callahan says, her buyers are more than willing to buy older houses in need of work.

"They are looking for houses with character that are affordable, as well," she says, "and so they are willing to spend the money and the time necessary to fix them up."

That willingness to do the work and not demand move-in condition helps make West Grove "very affordable in today's market," Callahan says.

Its prices, combined with the reputation of the school district, are attracting younger couples with children rather than down-sizers, she says.

There are condos suitable for those looking to scale back in a walkable community - four for sale right now, as both agents note. But there is no new construction here because there are few vacant lots.

The newest homes in town were built about 20 years ago, Callahan says.

Instead, "people who have lived here for 40 or 50 years are selling, and the buyers are young families."

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Population: 2,854 (2010).

Median household income: $64,835 (2012).

Area: 1.0 square mile.

Settlements in the last three months: 8.

Homes for sale: 16.

Average days on market: 144.

Median sales price: $180,950.

Housing stock: 889 units, including condos, townhouses, twins and singles, mostly older.

School district: Avon Grove.

SOURCES: U.S. Census Bureau; City-Data.com; Barbara M. Mastronardo, Weichert Realtors; Jill Callahan, Coldwell Banker Preferred; Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Fox & Roach HomExpert Market ReportEndText

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