As longtime real estate agents, we hear this question quite a bit. When buyers first arrive in the Berkshires—a large geographic area with as many towns and moods as the people who reside in them—they’re often familiar with only the highest-profile towns, and naturally start there in the search for homes for sale. But not far from the dissecting main corridor of Route 7 lie a variety of smaller hamlets, many brimming with real estate bargains.
Here’s a great example. At the peak of the real estate boom in the mid-2000s, two doctors from Boston came to the Berkshires in search of the perfect weekend house for themselves and for family gatherings. After looking at several houses for sale, they found an idyllic retreat on rural Bonny Rigg Road in the community of Indian Lake Estates in Becket, a 48-square-mile town in the southeastern corner of the county. They purchased the four-bedroom contemporary in June 2005 for $620,000.
For the past decade, the couple has made priceless family memories in the house, from swimming in the lake with their children to savoring long walks, and gathering around the table with kids and grandkids, laughing and sharing stories. The home’s location right off the Tanglewood exit of the Mass Pike proved ideal for them for quick access to their weekday home base in Boston, as did Becket’s small, friendly year-round population of 1,800 residents.
The doctors and their family took advantage of everything Becket has to offer, including boating and swimming in the town’s almost two miles’ worth of lakes, ponds, and streams. In addition to exciting concerts and rehearsals at Tanglewood, they regularly visited the nearby theaters at Shakespeare & Company, Berkshire Theatre Festival, and Chester Theater Co., and took in world-class dance performances at the historic Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. They delighted in raising a toast to friends at the infamous former speakeasy, the Dreamaway Lodge. They made many recommendations for visiting friends for fishing in the lakes and streams, or for their friend’s grandchildren to enjoy a priceless sleepaway camp experience at scenic Chimney Corners, Camp Becket, Camp Watitoh, and Camp Greylock. For this couple, a house in Becket has been a little piece of paradise.
Today, both doctors are in their 80s. Their children and grandchildren have settled in new cities, and the drive from Boston has become a challenge, so they’ve put their home up for sale. With the post-recession market so markedly different from when they purchased ten years ago, the home is being listed at $375,000 —a considerable value for a lovingly maintained home in a scenic town that’s close to both highway access and many major Berkshire attractions.
This just goes to show that with a little legwork and a knowledgeable Berkshire realtor on your side, you can find an amazing bargain. Let us give you a tour of this wonderful house in Becket, or one of the many other real estate values we list.
