Town By Town: Living is easy; so are prices

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

You've really got to love this place.

Doing so is really easy on a late July afternoon, when the air is so thick you can cut it with a knife.

Just when you think you can't swallow another steaming breath, a breeze works its way from the river to the bench in Lions Park where you sat when you decided you could go no farther.

Bristol Borough: Nirvana on the Delaware in Bucks County, close to I-95, a train ride to New York via Trenton and to Center City from the Bristol station, and across the bridge to Burlington if you like your eggs on the Jersey side.

Kathleen Lochel and her husband, Rob, moved to the borough in 1998 from Bristol Township, where they grew up.

"I absolutely love it there," she says, adding that they hope one day to bring a branch of their Hatboro bakery, Lochel's, here.

With a median price of $124,500 in the second quarter and just 20 sales in those three months, Bristol Borough is not as booming a real estate market as relatively newer communities that surround it.

The current state of the market? "You don't want to know," says Robyn Trunell, an agent with Re/Max Advantage in Fairless Hills, a 22-year resident here, and vice president of the Borough Council.

"It is not as good as I'd like it to be," says Maureen Scanlin, of Maureen M. Scanlin Real Estate, whose father, Charles J. McGee, had his real estate office here from 1961 to 2006.

House prices, Scanlin says, range from $40,000 to $825,000 (Bristol Borough's oldest, built in 1765 on the river).

"They average $125,000 to $150,000, with the most activity in that range," she says. "It gets slower above $150,000, and over $200,000 doesn't move all that quickly.

"I'd like to see them sell a little faster than just six a month, which is about the same as we did last year," Scanlin says. "I had hoped the market was on an uptick, but buyers seem to want beautiful houses at the lowest prices and are unwilling to commit quickly."

Scanlin has been able to sell houses that are priced right and in the proper location within 30 days.

Yet both she and Trunell see signs of an upswing in borough fortunes, including a reduction in the number of vacant stores on the main street in town.

"There were 15 empty stores on Mill Street, but when I took a client who wants to open a spa here last week to look for space, we were hard-pressed to find anything because there were just two or three vacancies," Trunell says.

"Bristol Borough is an up-and-coming community, in the middle stages of a complete renaissance, which is not a stretch," she says. "As with Manayunk, the housing market will definitely follow the revitalization of the business district."

If all went according to plan, groundbreaking was to take place Saturday across the street from the 17th-century King George II Inn for a large restaurant with five stacked condos above it and five townhouses.

The site, formerly Stock's Waterfront Cafe at 4 Mill St., is being developed by JVS Properties of Moorestown, which tried to renovate the building that was there, but it could not be salvaged.

Prices range from $450,000 to $575,000, Trunell says, and four are under agreement.

"It is a good sign when people are willing to spend that kind of money on Bristol Borough," she says.

Described as quaint and historic, this riverside town was settled in 1681 as the river port of Buckingham and served as the county seat.

In the municipal building is a wooden sign with the words "Welcome, Friend" - the sign that greeted the Marquis de Lafayette on his farewell tour of America in 1824.

Ships were built here, and the Delaware Canal and the railroad made Bristol Borough a transportation center. Its mills manufactured wallpaper, carpets, and a host of other products.

These days, its ancient and restored buildings are clustered into historic districts listed on the National Register. Its diverse population - 15 percent are Latino - celebrates its heritages with a host of festivals and other events.

And who can forget that this is the home of the "Bristol Stomp"?

"It is a diamond in the rough," says Scanlin, "but that makes it a real gem."

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Population: 9,633 (2013)

Median household income: $42,725 (2013)

Area: 1.9 square miles

Settlements in the last three months: 20

Homes for sale: 74

Average days on market: 87

Median sale price: $124,500

Housing stock: 4,207 units, many of them historic, as well as rowhouses and twins

School district: Bristol Borough

SOURCES: U.S. Census Bureau; City-Data.com; Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Fox & Roach Realtors HomExpert Market ReportEndText

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