231 Highland St

231 Highland St is a 1910-built, 3-bedroom, 1.1-bath Conventional-style home on a 0.31-acre lot in the heart of South Hamilton village — one of the North Shore's most walkable and enduringly desirable small-town centers. Based on six closed comparable sales within 0.9 miles, current South Hamilton market conditions, and North Shore location factors, we arrive at an estimated market value of $729,900, reflecting a well-supported, defensible current-market value for this property.

• Walkable South Hamilton village location, steps from the Hamilton/Wenham commuter rail stop and downtown amenities — a premium North Shore buyers consistently pay for.
• Hamilton-Wenham Regional school district.
• Extremely tight inventory (1.67 months) and strong recent sold-to-list ratios (105.6% among closed comps) — this size and price band is moving quickly.
• 762 sq ft of unfinished basement represents real, uncaptured expansion potential.

Tucked into South Hamilton's historic village center, 231 Highland St is a two-story Conventional home built in 1910, offering 1,343 square feet of living space across three bedrooms and 1.1 baths. The home sits on a generous 0.31-acre lot — larger than most of its closest village comparables — with a full, unfinished basement (762 sq ft) that offers meaningful future expansion potential for a buyer looking to add a family room, home office, or additional living space.

The home is heated by a gas-fired hot water system, is of frame construction with classic wood siding, and carries an asphalt gable roof. Like much of the surrounding village, its charm lies in its walkable setting — close to Asbury Grove, downtown South Hamilton shops and restaurants, and the Hamilton/Wenham MBTA commuter rail stop on the Newburyport/Rockport Line, a meaningful draw for commuting buyers.

Public records show the property last sold for $160,000 on 9/3/2009, following a 2009 notice of foreclosure. This is a distressed, 16-year-old transaction and is not indicative of current market value — it should not be referenced to buyers or appraisers as a comp for pricing purposes. Two items worth confirming before we finalize a listing strategy:

• Interior condition verification. This report assumes "good" condition throughout; a pre-listing walkthrough will confirm whether kitchen, baths, flooring, and systems support that positioning or whether cosmetic updates are warranted first.
• No central air, no garage. Both are common expectations for buyers at this price point on the North Shore and are reflected as adjustments against comparables that have them.
• Unfinished basement. 762 sq ft of unfinished space is a value-add opportunity worth highlighting in marketing, even without a full finish-out prior to listing.

South Hamilton (ZIP 01982) single-family homes are firmly in a seller's market as of July 2026, with inventory levels stretched thin relative to demand.

Months of supply fell 35.8% month-over-month and is down 28.3% year-over-year, underscoring how little inventory buyers currently have to choose from. The median sold price for single-family homes in 01982 ($857,500) and median active list price ($854,950) both reflect the broader mix of homes in the ZIP — including considerably larger and newer properties than the subject — so they should be read as directional market-strength indicators rather than a direct benchmark for 231 Highland St. The comparable-sale data in Section 4, filtered to homes of similar size, age, and bed count, is the more reliable pricing signal for this specific property.

One nuance worth flagging for a balanced view: while current month-over-month indicators (inventory, sold-to-list ratio) point to real strength, the ZIP's median estimated property value is down 4.5% over the trailing 12 months and 1.6% over the last month, per RPR's valuation trend data. This suggests the market has been more of a "flight to quality, tight inventory" story than a broad-based price run-up — supporting a pricing strategy that's competitive and well-researched rather than aggressively testing the ceiling.

Within the entry-level/smaller-home segment specifically — the size band most relevant to 231 Highland St — the five most recent closed comparable sales in South Hamilton averaged just 10 days until contract and a 105.6% average sold-to-list ratio, with closed prices ranging $625,000–$767,000. That's a strong, active buyer pool for exactly this kind of home.

Nine properties were reviewed within roughly a mile of the subject. Six are treated as Primary comparables — genuine closed sales, all 3-bedroom homes, within 0.9 miles of the subject, with a defensible basis for adjustment. Three are treated as Secondary / Context comps and given reduced or no weight in the final reconciliation, for the reasons noted with each. This follows the CMA principle of making the fewest adjustments necessary and weighting the most similar comparables most heavily.

These three properties were reviewed but are not used to anchor the final value range, for the reasons noted. They're included for transparency and because they still inform the broader neighborhood pricing picture.

Adjustments below use Massachusetts residential CMA guideline rates ($60/sq ft GLA for a standard-condition North Shore home of this vintage, $15,000/full bath, $5,000/half bath, $7,500 for central air, $5,000 for a fireplace, $20–30/sq ft for finished basement space) rather than a mechanical algorithm, and lot-size differences are treated conservatively — in line with guidance to make only the fewest, most defensible adjustments necessary for standard in-town lots.

Our independently-derived comp average ($731,222) lands within roughly 1% of RPR's own system-generated CMA value ($726,284) — a strong sign of convergence between two different methodologies. The RVM® sits meaningfully lower ($669,400), which is typical of pure AVMs that can't account for condition, and reinforces the importance of confirming the subject's actual interior condition before finalizing pricing.

Reconciled value range: $705,000 – $755,000. This range is centered on the four closest, most comparable sales (#1, #4, #5, #8 — all within 0.35 miles), with the two farther comps (#3, #6) supporting the lower-middle of the range and RPR's system value supporting the midpoint.

Because this valuation rests on an assumed "good" condition rating that has not been verified through an interior inspection, it's useful to understand how the estimated market value would shift under different, equally plausible condition scenarios — rather than a single fixed number. The three scenarios below use the same six-comp data set and the same adjustment methodology from Section 5; only the condition assumption changes.

In addition to condition, two current market factors support the $729,900 base-case value: South Hamilton's single-family inventory is unusually tight (1.67 months of supply), and recent closed comparables in this size and price band have sold at an average of 105.6% of list price with a median of just 7 days on market. Both indicate genuine, active buyer demand for a property of this profile today — not a speculative or aspirational value. A brief interior walkthrough would allow us to confirm which condition scenario above best reflects the property and narrow the range accordingly.

Based on six primary closed comparable sales within 0.9 miles of the subject, current South Hamilton market conditions, and North Shore location premiums for walkability and commuter rail proximity, we arrive at an estimated market value of $729,900. This figure sits almost exactly between our independently-derived comp average ($731,222) and RPR's own system-generated CMA value ($726,284) — two different methodologies arriving at very similar answers, which supports a moderate-to-high confidence level in the range.

The confidence level is set to moderate rather than high for one specific reason: this entire analysis rests on the assumption that the subject and comparables are all in comparable "good" condition — an assumption we have not been able to verify against actual interior photos or a walkthrough of 231 Highland St. If a pre-listing visit confirms updated systems, kitchen, and baths consistent with the better-presented comps (like #1 and #5), the higher end of the range — or even the aggressive tier — becomes realistic. If the interior proves more dated, pricing nearer the RVM® baseline ($669,400) or the conservative tier ($699,900) would be the more defensible starting point.

We recommend a brief pre-listing walkthrough to confirm condition, along with a conversation about whether a light pre-listing investment (paint, staging, minor kitchen/bath refresh) could support pricing at or above the market-rate recommendation.