CNHI News Service Price for Crow Island: $14.6 million

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This mansion on Crow Island, off Ocean Street in Manchester, Mass., went on sale this month and is listed at $14.6 million. Tuesday, February 26, 2008 Mike Dean/Gloucester Daily Times

Manchester, Mass.: This is the eat-in kitchen in a mansion on Crow Island that went on sale this month for an asking price of $14.6 million. It is off Ocean Street. Tuesday, February 26, 2008 Courtesy photo/Gloucester Daily Times

Manchester, Mass.: The gate going into the mansion on Crow Island is decorated with crows. The house went on sale this month and is listed at $14.6 million. It is off Ocean Street. Tuesday, February 26, 2008 Mike Dean/Gloucester Daily Times

This month, Crow Island, a 5-acre mansion estate perched at the water’s edge on a rocky Ocean Street peninsula, went up for sale at a list price of $14.6 million. If it actually closes at that price, it would be the most expensive home ever purchased on the North Shore of Massachusetts.

MANCHESTER, Mass. — Though foreclosures are climbing and home sales falling to new lows throughout Massachusetts, the prices for luxury real estate are showing few signs of dropping.
This month, Crow Island, a 5-acre mansion estate perched at the water’s edge on a rocky Ocean Street peninsula went up for sale at a list price of $14.6 million. If it actually closes at that price, it would be the most expensive home ever purchased on the North Shore.
And because the estate, built around the turn of the 20th century, has recently undergone a major renovation, the listing broker believes there’s a good chance of actually getting that number. While other high-end properties in the area have started out at much higher prices, they’ve sold for significantly less. For instance, the current price record-holder, the Seahome estate on Boardman Avenue, was listed in 2004 for $17.75 million; it finally sold last August for $11 million.
And despite the broader housing market’s decline, sales at the high end remain strong, especially north of Boston.
The Crow Island estate, which real estate agency J. Barrett called “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” includes an 8,700-square-foot, six-bedroom stone mansion with views of Kettle Cove and a separate three-bedroom carriage house with its own office and yoga studio.
“You are up on this big chunk of rock. It truly feels like an island,” said Holly Fabyan, the listing agent for Crow Island. “But the eclecticness of the interior makes it not intimidating. It really doesn’t feel like 8,000 square feet.”
Crow Island hits the market during a nearly two-year regional and national housing slump that experts say may still be months from hitting bottom.
According to figures released Tuesday by the Warren Group, a publisher of real estate data, the number of single-family homes sold statewide during January dropped 28 percent from January 2007, from 2,943 to 2,010, the lowest level since the company started collecting the statistics in 1987. In Essex County, the number of sales in January dropped 20 percent year-to-year and median sale prices for homes in the county fell 4 percent.
“Judging by the last few months of lackluster sales and ever-increasing number of foreclosures — which can create a glut of low-cost homes on the market — these downward trends are many months from ending,” said Timothy Warren, chief operating officer of the Warren Group.
But north of Boston, high-end sales remain strong.
The number of homes sold for more than $2 million in Essex County has increased each of the past three years, up to 49 in 2007 from 42 in 2006 and 41 in 2005, according to the Warren Group.
In Manchester, the market for multimillion-dollar houses has stayed particularly strong.
According to Fabyan, seven Manchester properties sold for more than $3 million in 2007, up from four in 2006 and two in 2005.
Jon Gray of J. Barrett said he was not surprised high-priced properties were still moving, even as the middle and bottom of the market have collapsed.
“The high end is still very strong,” Gray said. “In the long term, real estate is still a great investment.”
Fabyan said brokering multimillion-dollar home sales doesn’t differ too much from sales of more typically priced properties, except that the buyers usually pony up for the properties in cash.
“These are the kind of people who are kind of impervious to market fluctuations,” Fabyan said. “They usually don’t need financing.

Patrick Anderson writes for the Gloucester Daily Times of Gloucester, Mass. E-mail him at panderson@gloucestertimes.com