Town By Town: Village charm in Bucks

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

To say that Wrightstown has a long history is an understatement.

Just outside Penn's Park - with origins in the early 1700s, it's the oldest of this township's five villages - there is a log house purported to be the oldest home in Bucks County. The graveyard in the southwest corner of the settlement holds the remains of many of its early inhabitants.

Wrightstown's age and its location in the corridor between New York and Philadelphia have created a diverse housing stock, says Frank Dolski, an agent with Coldwell Banker Hearthside Real Estate in Lahaska.

"There are at least 140 houses more than 100 years old, as well as high-end new construction, and the price range in Wrightstown is very broad," Dolski says.

In a 12-month period ending Sept. 23, for example, sale prices ranged from about $200,000 to $1.39 million. In the period between September 2013 and September 2014, the high was $2 million, he says.

At 93.12 percent, "the discount rate is not great," he says, referring to list price vs. sale price in Wrightstown.

"In most areas in Bucks County, the list vs. sale price is 97 percent or 98 percent," Dolski says, adding that he believes the discount rate is greatest on the highest-end houses.

Yet "the highest-end houses have seen the largest increase in sale prices overall in the last couple of years," he adds.

Wrightstown's average sale price for the last 12 months was $651,852, he says, 1.5 percent higher than the $641,981 of the previous 12 months.

The average list price was $691,238 in the last 12 months, compared with $726,306 in the previous year, Dolski says.

Just 35 houses have sold in the last 12 months, compared with 39 in the previous 12, he says. Average time on market is 102 days, compared with 79 in the previous year.

"Wrightstown is an interesting market," says Sharon Ermel Spadaccini, an agent with Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Fox & Roach Realtors in New Hope, noting that it is one of the smaller towns in the Council Rock School District.

Sandwiched among what she calls "the heavy hitters" - Upper Makefield, Newtown Borough, Newtown Township, and Northampton - Wrightstown is "one of the best-kept secrets in real estate," she says.

"It is not as well-developed as the others," Spadaccini says, meaning that many buyers prefer living in new communities in which all the houses are about the same price.

"In Wrightstown," she says, referring to one of her listings here, "a $300,000 house can be next door to a million-dollar one. A lot of people don't care for that."

There are only 30 active listings, and an additional 38 houses are under contract, Dolski says.

"There isn't much new construction," he says, concurring with Spadaccini's observation on the Wrightstown market. "Just a couple of pockets of a few homes - private lots with private builders."

Orleans Homes is completing Matthew's Ridge, while NV Homes is doing the same at Warner Meadows, where houses range from $800,000 to $1.5 million - "a spread of $700,000," Dolski says.

"There aren't huge parcels left," he says. "You aren't going to find major builders coming here because there just isn't enough land."

There are some townhouses in Wrightstown, and prices at housing's lower end attracts first-time buyers, Dolski says.

"A lot of my buyers are millennials in their 30s," Spadaccini says. "They are an eclectic group for an eclectic township who are finding great value here."

"It isn't a hub like Newtown Borough," she says. "There isn't much commercial here" - Carousel Village at Indian Walk on Durham Road is an exception - "just some small villages and small stores."

Of Wrightstown's villages - Penns Park, Pineville, Rushland, Wrightstown and Wycombe - Penns Park and Wycombe are on the National Register of Historic Places.

Wycombe, which is shared with Buckingham Township, grew up around a railroad. The restored village station and lots of other late Victorian-era buildings remain.

Pineville, which has the post office, has a speed limit that drops from 45 m.p.h. to 25 in the blink of an eye.

"Be warned," Dolski says.

aheavens@phillynews.com

215-854-2472@alheavens

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Population: 2,995 (2010)

Median household income: $101,727 (2013)

Area: 10 square miles

Settlements in the last three months: 11

Homes for sale: 30

Average days on market: 102

Median sale price: $550,000

Housing stock: 986 units, 140 of them at least 100 years old.

School district: Council Rock

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau; Frank Dolski, Coldwell Banker Hearthside, Lahaska: Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Fox & Roach Realtors HomExpert Market ReportEndText