North Shore Real Estate Stories, Insights & Market Intelligence

The June Market: Endings and Beginnings June arrives like the last day of school always does. Fast, happier and crazier than expected. More emotional than you planned for. And over before you are ready. This year has many personal moments for my family. My son Harrison closes the door on first grade

THE $275 MILLION PROBLEM NOBODY IN REAL ESTATE IS TALKING ABOUT LOUDLY ENOUGH How wire fraud works, why it is getting harder to spot, and what every North Shore buyer and seller must do before any money moves There is a number that has been sitting with me since I started researching this post. $275

_*]:min-w-0 gap-3"> How One Vote at Newburyport City Hall Changed the Story of Historic Preservation There is a particular kind of loss that happens slowly. Not in one dramatic moment but in a hundred small decisions. A roofline altered here. A facade replaced there. A Victorian front porch that bec

Realty Bites | May 2026: Two Signals, One Market   Most real estate newsletters lead with mortgage rates. Mortgage rates are the easy part. What actually drives decisions is messier, more human, and considerably more interesting. That’s the story nobody else is telling. That’s what this is about.  T

Nobody warned Ipswich what was coming. In 1957 a young writer with a contract from The New Yorker moved into a house on Labor-in-Vain Road and started paying very close attention to his neighbours. John Updike lived on the North Shore for seventeen years. He watched the dinner parties. The marriages

TWO HOUSES. ONE STORY. WHY STAGING IS THE SMARTEST INVESTMENT A SELLER CAN MAKE. Two houses. Same street. Same square footage. Same potential. One tells a story. One doesn't. This is not a hypothetical. It happens every week on the North Shore. Two comparable homes come to market within weeks of eac

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow out of this stony rubbish?T.S. Eliot wrote that in 1922. Most people assume he was describing some bleak corner of post-war Europe.He was describing Gloucester.Eliot spent his summers as a boy on Eastern Point, Cape Ann. The rocky outcrops. The Atla

What Does a Home Actually Cost on the North Shore in 2026? There is a number that appears on every listing. The asking price. It is also, in almost every case, the least useful number in the transaction. What a home actually costs on the North Shore in 2026 is a more interesting and more important q

  The Best Towns on the North Shore for Families, Commuters and Downsizers There is no single answer to the question of where to live on the North Shore. Which is either unhelpful or liberating, depending on your perspective. What there is, however, is data. And thirty years of learning how people a

_*]:min-w-0 gap-3"> Flood Zones on the North Shore - What Every Buyer Needs to Know Before They Fall in Love _*]:min-w-0 gap-3"> There is a particular sequence of events that nobody in real estate likes to talk about. Buyer finds home. Buyer falls in love with home. Buyer makes offer. Buyer discover

Why Spring is the Best Time to Sell in Essex County - And Why Most Sellers Miss the Window Every year, the same conversation happens on the North Shore. A homeowner decides they want to sell. They think about spring. They wait for spring. They list in May, sometimes June, occasionally July, by which

The Truth About Zillow Estimates on the North Shore In 1897, Mark Twain wrote to a newspaper that had prematurely reported his death. "The reports of my death," he said, "are greatly exaggerated." He would have made an excellent real estate analyst. Zillow's Zestimate is not wrong in the way that a

Living in Newburyport MA - What Nobody Tells You Before You Move Here There is a particular kind of person who moves to Newburyport. They have usually done their research. They know about the Federal architecture, the waterfront, the restaurants on Inn Street. They have probably driven through on a

Published in The Townie, April 14, 2026 Some conversations matter more than others. This one does. This week I wrote a piece for The Townie - Newburyport's independent opinion publication - on one of the most important planning debates currently facing the city. Whether to extend the demolition dela

There's a term making its way through economic circles right now. The K-shaped market. It describes what I'm seeing on the North Shore better than almost anything else. Picture the letter K. Two lines diverging from the same point. One trending upward. One drifting down. That's exactly what's happen

        96             Real estate can be overwhelming. “Realty Bites” makes sense of the madness, offering the insight behind the headlines and the strategy behind the sale.   If you have glanced at real estate headlines recently, you would be forgiven for thinking the entire market revolves around

        96                 Real estate can be overwhelming. “Realty Bites” makes sense of the madness, offering the insight behind the headlines and the strategy behind the sale.     Snow may still lie heavy on the ground across Massachusetts, but the shift is unmistakable. The light lasts longer. T

        96                 Real estate can be overwhelming. “Realty Bites” makes sense of the madness, offering the insight behind the headlines and the strategy behind the sale.     It may still feel like winter outside, with January temperatures in Massachusetts noticeably cooler than last year, b

        96                 Real estate can be overwhelming. “Realty Bites” makes sense of the madness, offering the insight behind the headlines and the strategy behind the sale.     January is not a pause button. It is a positioning month. And, as a top producer for Engel & Völkers By The Sea in De

        96                 Real estate can be overwhelming. “Realty Bites” makes sense of the madness, offering the insight behind the headlines and the strategy behind the sale.     December is the month when the market takes a breath. Not a pause exactly, more of a quiet inhale before January’s an