Town By Town: Lots of charm, little turnover

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

Malvern looks just a little bit unfamiliar each time you visit the Chester County borough.

Malvern Prep is still on South Warren Avenue, of course, and Paoli/Thorndale Line trains still stop at the North Warren Avenue station.

It's East King Street, the borough's main thoroughfare, that seems to be changing perpetually, with new businesses opening or expanding in new or just-renovated spaces.

"It has become a popular area, walkable, good school system, train, proximity to the corporate centers, reasonable taxes, and the like," says John Duffy, of Duffy Real Estate in Narberth and St. David's.

"It is a hot little number," says Weichert agent Barbara M. Mastronardo, referring to the increasing numbers of businesses, especially dining options, in the borough.

"The business district is getting its own niche," Mastronardo says, adding that Malvern has always been a "niche community, very upscale with a college-town atmosphere and very education-oriented."

Malvern Prep is within the borough's boundaries, but other institutions - Villa Maria Academy High School at the edge of town, Immaculata University in East Whiteland Township, and Penn State's Great Valley campus - are nearby, Mastronardo says.

While attractive, bustling, and historic, Malvern is not the most active of residential markets because, as Mike McConnell of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Fox & Roach Realtors points out, the borough is a secure place with little turnover and infill rather than the large developments in the high-end townships surrounding it.

That translates into just eight active listings - ranging from a $195,000, two-bedroom, one-bath condo at Raintree Condominium to a $1.2 million, 110-year-old single on Monument Avenue with 4,500 square feet, six bedrooms, and 31/2 baths on an acre.

"It is more affordable than a lot of other places, and has a variety of options - rowhouses and twins, as well as condos and singles," he says.

If you leave out the single one-million-plus home, the range of active listings runs from $195,000 to $625,000, McConnell says.

When you look at the townships that, like Malvern Borough, are in the Great Valley School District, "it is a $400,000- to $600,000-range market," McConnell says.

The higher end has been a little more stagnant.

Sales in the second quarter - typically the market's peak selling season - totaled 11 houses, six more than in the first quarter and the same as the April to June period of 2014, according to Berkshire Hathaway Home Services HomExpert Report, using data from Trend Multiple Listing Service.

Median sale prices for houses were slightly higher - 0.2 percent in the first six months of 2015 versus the same period - $212,500 versus $212,000.

"Houses don't stay on the market long," says McConnell, an East Goshen Township resident who has been selling real estate with his wife, Maribeth, for 20 years and is based in BHHS Fox & Roach's Malvern office.

The most expensive recent sale was a Monument Avenue house about two years old that went for $726,518, McConnell says.

Condos range from $150,000 to $200,000 - Kingsbury is the other development in Malvern - and twins and singles run between $200,000 and $300,000, he says.

The lowest recent sale was a twin for $110,000, but Mastronardo notes that it was a HUD house and had been on the market for about a year.

Malvern's shops and restaurants attract a diverse clientele, and McConnell observes that "it isn't unusual to have an AstraZeneca executive having lunch at the Flying Pig Saloon next to a plumber."

Within and without the borough are a variety of major employers - Vanguard Group, AmeriGas, Ricoh, QVC, and Paoli Hospital/Main Line Health.

Many employees - along with downsizers from surrounding townships - have moved into the 190 units of Eastside Flats on East King Street, developed by David Della Porta of Cornerstone Communities in Villanova.

"Eastside has stabilized in the last six months and is performing very well," Della Porta says.

"I believe it has transformed the borough - the evidence is all the development activity that has sprung up around it."

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Population: 2,298 (2010)

Median household income: $62,308 (2013)

Area: 1.3 square miles

Settlements in the last three months: 11

Homes for sale: 8

Average days on market: 42

Median sale price: $212,500

Housing stock: 1,419 units including condos, rowhouses, twins, singles, and high-end rentals

School district: Great Valley

SOURCES: U.S. Census Bureau; City-Data.com; Mike McConnell, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Fox & Roach Realtors, Malvern; Barbara M. Mastronardo, Weichert Realtors, MediaEndText

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