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Welcome to Wayland, a peaceful community located in the MetroWest region between Boston and Worcester, a semi-rural town that takes great pride in preserving its open/green spaces – especially the forests, marshes and fields that surround the Sudbury River – through careful planning and zoning. Jim can attest to what you can read on the town of Wayland’s official web site: “It is a caring community of residents from a variety of religious, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, bound together by a tradition of philanthropy and volunteer spirit. Citizens offer their time and talent to a variety of charitable causes and cultural organizations that make Wayland a wonderful place in which to live.” One of my client-sellers had gifted 5 acres of their homestead to the town to extend the town’s reservation holdings. The meadows and marshes along the ten-mile course of the Sudbury River have been kept relatively unspoiled and are now the object of private and public efforts to maintain them in their natural state. They are still full of wildlife and are beautiful to see. They provide an open, rural setting and contribute to the attractive features and uniqueness of this almost purely residential town.

Outdoor Recreation

Not long ago, Wayland ranked #2 out of 147 MA towns and cities in Boston Magazine, “Best Places to Live/Best Bang for the Buck”, comparing cost of living to quality of life. It also ranked #2 as the safest place to live in Massachusetts. Wayland is also a fun place to live! As you drive along SR 30/Commonwealth Road you will pass through Cochituate State Park, in which you will find a lake with a beach and lake recreation activities. This general vicinity is known as Cochituate. Wayland residents have exclusive use of the beach on the North Pond side of the lake. If you want to avoid the crowds and clamor of the state park beach area, you can enjoy the wonderful town’s beach that offers swimming and a boat launch for its residents and guests. It is located at 25 Parkland Drive.

Dudley Pond is also located in Wayland. Both lakes are used by the public year round – in the summer for boating, fishing and swimming, and in the winter for ice skating, pond hockey, and ice fishing. There are a lot of lakefront homes on Dudley Pond.

Other Wayland amenities include golf courses, playing fields, cross-country ski trails, and the National Wildlife Refuge along the Sudbury River. The community is also fortunate to have other recreational areas such as Mill Pond for fishing, pine-forested picnic areas, and many conservation areas for hiking and horse riding trails. In addition, the town promotes outdoors athletic activities and provides well equipped basketball courts, tennis courts, ice-skating areas, a swimming pool, and several playgrounds.

Although local retail is found in small shopping centers, anything you might desire can be found a few minutes away in the neighboring retail districts of Natick and Framingham. Unfortunately, Wayland is not served by public transit; rather, it is a 100% car-dependent community if you need to leave your home! Fortunately, there is great access by road, whether you are puttering along quaint, winding, “country” roads graced by beautiful houses and landscaped gardens or commuting hurriedly on the Mass Pike/I-90, US 20, or SR 30, which take you into neighboring towns which do have commuter rail service should you prefer to park and ride. Stop & Shop is the largest grocery store here and is located near the intersection of Highway 20 and State Road 27. A Whole Foods store, also, is a few minutes away on Boston Post Rd in Sudbury.

If you have a specific property in mind that you think you might like to buy, there is an online database which you can access to see what value the town gives the property. The Assessor’s office provides two great maps of Wayland along with plat maps which will show you what is located near or around your future home. There is little industrial or commercial tax base in Wayland, placing the tax burden on homeowners. Properties are serviced by private sewerage systems, and almost all have town water.

Wayland is home to a growing population of urban professionals. If you have school-age children, the Wayland Public Schools is where you will want them enrolled. They will take good care of them with its strong, college, preparatory program. Its transportation policies and bus routes are outlined here.

To keep up with daily goings on you can check in online with the Wayland Town Crier, Wayland e News, The Patch, or, of course, the Boston Globe, and the Boston Herald.

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.

Except for an occasional multi-family sale a year, the rest of the sales are predominantly single-family homes. There are a few dozen condo/townhome sales each year. Single family homes have seen prices running from $325,000 for a small, fixer-upper to $3,250,000 while condominiums have been running from $240,000 to $1,200,000 for a large townhome. Understandably, pricing varies depending upon size, location, and amenities.

Real estate sales and pricing are very fluid and can fluctuate in a matter of hours because homes come on and 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 activity and compares the ups and downs of Wayland to those of Boston proper. The taller the column the better it is for buyers. The shorter the column the better it is for sellers. Hence 2006 was the best time for a buyer to buy in Wayland, while 2017-2020 were good years for sellers. However, the graphic below indicates a weakening seller’s market for Boston with Wayland following shortly behind.

This next chart shows the number of sales occurring in Wayland 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 Wayland Real Estate

This is Wayland’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 Wayland. Unlike other search sites which includes properties already under contract, this site only shows properties that are truly available.