Needham, MA

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Brief Synopsis

An area in the northeast corner of Needham is called Needham Crossing. It is a light industrial corridor east of the I-95/Route 128 beltway. Needham Crossing is comprised of commercial and retail businesses including a Coca-Cola plant and a Trader Joe’s packing plant. Apart from this relatively small area and its thriving town center, Needham is primarily an affluent bedroom community and commuter suburban district which you will find to be very friendly and a great place in which to live and raise a family. Residents often talk about how close-knit the neighborhoods are. Knock on a door or two, chat a resident up that you pass by and you will hear the same sentiments expressed from everyone about their Needham home, “the only way I’m leaving is in a pine box”.

Where is Needham?

The Town of Needham is located on rocky uplands within a loop of the Charles River in the eastern section of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, bordered by Wellesley on the west and northwest, Newton on the north and northeast, the West Roxbury section of Boston on the east, Dedham on the southeast and south, and Westwood and Dover on the south. Needham is just 10 short miles southwest of Boston. Quick access to the rest of the metropolis is possible via I-95/SR-128, SR-9, and SR-135. The commuter train runs through Needham with stations at Needham Junction, Needham Center, and Needham Heights, if you’d rather avoid driving in rush hour traffic – see schedule here. If you are doing a search for properties or for anything or anyone else in Needham, you can search by two zip codes – 02492 (for south and western parts of Needham) and 02494 (for its northeast section, Needham Heights).

Needham’s Neighborhoods

Different areas of Needham are given local names. Some of the more common neighborhoods include: Tower Hill, Mitchell School, Broadmeadow & Birds Hill-Thornton, Walker Pond, Needham Junction, Needham Heights, High Rock Junction, Volante, Needham South of Highland, Thorpe Park Area, Hunnewell-Hillside, Olin Woods, and Charles River Village.

Local Activities

Check out The Neighborhood Farm – aka Farmers’ Market – an exciting addition to the town. It provides fresh, locally grown produce from Memorial Day through the Thanksgiving weekend. Volante Farms, open year round, is another popular market. Are you a mountain biker or simply a hiker? Either way, you will enjoy Cutler Park Reservation, a state park, with its hills and trails near an 800-acre marsh along the Charles River and beside route 128. There is an outdoor public swimming pool built into Rosemary Lake, and many parks, playgrounds and ball fields that offer exceptional family recreation, including: DeFazio Park, Greene’s Field (which houses a playground and several sports fields), Memorial Park, Perry Park (featuring a playground and basketball court), the Walker-Gordon Field and Walker Pond (where fishing is added to soccer and baseball activities), the Ridge Hill Reservation (for nature hiking at its best), and Town Forest Park and Farley Pond (where you can enjoy mountain biking). If you are single or want more night life you will need to drive into Boston. Don’t forget to check into the Newcomer’s Club of Needham once you decide to make Needham your home.

Housing

In years past, Needham was principally recognized as the country getaway for well-to-do Bostonians living on Beacon Hill or Back Bay. Many large houses first built in the 1800s as country homes for the rich still survive. You will find some secluded estates along the Charles River – areas of grand new homes and charming, old-fashioned neighborhoods. Since the southern area of Needham is comprised of many estates built upon 3-5 acres – some even as large as 35 to 60 acres – it is less densely populated than its northern section where lot sizes are typically a fifth of an acre or less. Understandably, you will find the most expensive homes in the south. However, a lot of people think of all of Needham as an expensive place to buy a home because many homes priced less than $600,000 are snapped up by builders, torn down, and replaced with McMansions selling from $1,300,000 – $1,600,000. You can find condominiums/townhomes in Needham, but by and large Needham consists of single-family dwellings.

Property Taxes

Needham’s official web site provides links to important information, including an online database which you can access to see what value the city Assessor gives each property. You can jot down the value found here and then multiply it by its annual tax rate to determine the total taxes of any property you have interest in buying.

Other Info About Needham

If you have school-age children, the Needham Public School District is highly rated (per GreatSchools.org) especially its middle and high schools and Eliot Elementary School. You can determine which elementary school your child(ren) will attend by locating your prospective new home’s address on the list provided here. NPS’s transportation policies, bus routes, etc., are outlined here. There are also several private Catholic schools, including Saint Joseph’s Elementary School, and Saint Sebastian’s high school for boys.

It is always wise to check if there is reported criminal activity in the area in which you plan to live. Fortunately, Needham’s crime rate is very low. To keep up with daily goings on, you can check in online with the purveyors of local news: The Needham Times, The Hometown Weekly, The Patch, and The Needham Channel on TV. Of course, there are also the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald.

Single family homes in Needham have been running from about $500,000 for tear downs to $4,000,000 while condominiums have been running from about $300,000 to $1,600,000. Pricing varies depending upon size, location, and amenities. Real estate markets are very fluid. Things can change in a matter of hours because homes can come on and go off the market daily… even hourly. What is currently offered for sale is listed below. The following chart is a visual representation of the cyclical nature of real estate and compares the highs and lows between Needham to the ups and downs of Boston proper. Notice how Boston’s graph line is almost a straight line; but Needham’s is very jagged with lots of ups and downs. The taller the column the better it is for buyers. The shorter the column the better it is for sellers.

Area Schools

Great Schools provides ratings for most schools in the United States. Below, you can see what schools are near the address you are thinking of buying and then compare it to other neighboring schools.

This next chart shows the number of sales occurring in Needham month-to-month, year-to-year since 2018 and provides you a historical overview of the best times to sell – months with the greatest number of sales (spring and fall) – and the best times to buy – months with the fewest number of sales (summer and winter). CAVEAT: there are usually more houses to choose from in the first half of the year.

Searching for Needham Real Estate

This is Needham’s best real estate site to search for: homes, land and foreclosure properties. It is seriously the only site you will ever need to find your next home or investment property! Bookmark this page and check back anytime to see what is currently available in Needham. Unlike other search sites which includes properties already under contract, this site only shows properties that are truly available.