Wayland Patch 3/26/13: Home Sales Drop in Wayland, Rise in Middlesex County. Wayland homes sales in February 2013 dropped by 38 percent from the same month in 2012, but Middlesex County home sales overall rose ever so slightly for the month, according to a recent report by The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman. Wayland continued the trend of showing 2013 numbers lower than those reported in 2012. With January and February numbers in, Wayland sales were down 36 percent year-to-date, from 25 homes sold in the first two months of 2012 to 16 homes in the same period in 2013. The median sale price in Wayland, however, was up by 98 percent from February 2012 to February 2013, from $665,000 to $910,000. Middlesex County’s median home price was also up in February 2013 compared to February 2012 — from $330,000 to $360,000.

Wayland Patch 2/1/2013: Wayland Home Sales Up 44 Percent in 2012. Wayland saw a 44 percent increase in single-family home sales in 2012, according to statistics gathered by the Warren Group, the Boston-based real estate and banking information publishers for New England.

Metrowest Daily News 5/13/12: Healthy spring real estate market. The days are getting warmer, the grass is getting greener and spring is in full bloom across New England. As the weather continues to improve, real estate sales are also improving. According to the Re/Max of New England Monthly Housing Report for March, the region is experiencing an increase in home sales, a decrease in inventory and stabilization in median home prices. These three indicators are all signs that we are enjoying a healthy spring real estate market.

Wayland Town Crier 5/8/11: Right time to sell? Seniors wait out the housing slump. The economic collapse didn't just hit laid-off Wall Street workers or families fighting foreclosure. The recent lean years have also struck those who were finally ready to cash out and put their feet up. Many seniors who were going to sell their homes and move on to senior housing communities instead saw real estate values plummet. Their decision to stay put, in hopes that the market would rebound, then caused another shift, this time among assisted and independent living residences.

Wayland Patch 12/30/10: Wayland Real Estate Market Unusual, Not Immune. The November foreclosure number of 67,428 homes nationally was the lowest monthly total since May 2009 and represented a 28 percent drop from the October number. But what does that mean for the local real estate market? After all, according to RealtyTrac, Wayland saw only two foreclosures in November, which makes foreclosures in this city far from epidemic. Local real estate agents Elaine Sweeney and Rita Schulz are optimistic, but not naïve.

Boston Globe 7/18/10: The march of the McMansions. Wayland and Brookline are two towns intent on preserving housing stock. In 2004, Wayland’s voters changed zoning language to allow the town to block the demolition of any building that no longer conforms to the zoning rules for the lot it sits on, a designation that applies to about 50 percent of Wayland’s housing stock. The only way such a building can be torn down is if it has been irredeemably damaged by fire or other involuntary or natural events. And even if the board approves the teardown, the house that replaces it “shall not be substantially more detrimental to the neighborhood” than what already existed. The result is that the number of demolition permits in Wayland has dropped each year since 2005, going from 13 in 2005 to two for the first half of 2010. But owners can demolish an existing, conforming building for any reason, as long as the new building complies with all zoning rules.

Boston Globe 3/25/10: Builders, responding to changing demand, shrink size of new homes. An apparent shift in the popularity of oversized homes in favor of more modest, lower-cost designs is emerging amid signs of a local uptick in new construction that is mirroring national trends, according to builders and area officials. While housing starts and building permits are up modestly across the country this year after a dismal 2009, the average size of new homes has been shrinking. By the end of last year, the average home size had dropped to 2,373 square feet, from a peak of 2,507 square feet in 2007, the US Census Bureau reports. And local builders are responding, shrinking floor plans, eliminating formal living rooms and making other changes to slash square footage and bring down the cost of new homes. In Wayland, two new developments feature “green homes’’ of 3,000 to 3,500 square feet, with energy-efficient features and surrounded by conservation land. That’s a dramatic departure from the boom years, when some new homes were reaching 7,000 square feet, said Sarkis Sarkisian, Wayland’s town planner.