Town Authority Series: Westwood, Ma: A Local’s Guide to Real Estate & Lifestyle
Welcome to our in-depth look at Westwood, Massachusetts! We sat down with local Westwood realtor and resident, Tammy DeWolfe of DeWolfe Living at Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty. If you're exploring options for moving to this vibrant town, you may have questions about the real estate market, schools, and community amenities. In this video, we break down what you need to know about living in Westwood, including the current housing inventory, school systems, and lifestyle offerings.
Life in Mass would like to thank Tammy DeWolfe for this interview!
Tammy DeWolfe, DeWolfe Living, Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty
781.248.1534
DeWolfeLiving.com
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Mike Zarella (00:02)
Hello everyone, welcome to our Town Authority series on lifeandmass.com. I am your host, Mike Zarella. Today we're going to be talking about the town of Westwood, Massachusetts. And we have our special guest today with us, Tammy DeWolfe of DeWolfe Living at Gibson Sotheby's International Realty. Tammy, thank you so much for being with us today.
Tammy DeWolfe (00:24)
Thank you so much, Mike, for having me.
Mike Zarella (00:27)
Why don't we start by you giving our viewers a background on who you are and why exactly you are the expert on Westwood, Massachusetts?
Tammy DeWolfe (00:35)
Sure,sure. ⁓ so I've been in real estate for a little over twenty s twenty years. and I've been actually living in Westwood for twenty-one years. So we have one kid who went through the public school system here, ended up going to Xaverian, ⁓ about seventh grade on. So very much know the community as far as school system. I've been working here in Westwood for a very long time. My father-in-law used to have the DeWolfe Real Estate Company. And they were a huge company here in New England. So very versed in what's happening in Massachusetts, surrounding towns, but my home or my hub, I should say, is here in Westwood.
Mike Zarella (01:02)
Deeply rooted.
Very good. ⁓ so that brings us to our first section, which is basically gonna be real estate. So let's talk a little bit about the ins and outs of Westwood when it comes to real estate. ⁓ what is the inventory like there? ⁓ you know, not only you know what is it like as far as how many homes are on the market for sale these days, but what do I find if I'm looking to buy in Westwood? Is it gonna be 1920s colonials? Am I gonna find any single family or multifamilies? Like what do I have?
Tammy DeWolfe (01:57)
So the inventory here in Westwood has been low for a long time now. We're not talking it's prior to actually ⁓ COVID. So we still have like less than twenty houses on the market on
Sometimes on a Monday we'll have like twenty three or twenty five, but then by the following Monday we still have like sixteen. So the market here is still very fast. most houses are going over asking price. ⁓ it really is, you know, price point is really strong. We have prices ⁓ ranging from, you know eight hundred thousand to ten million. So it's mostly single family homes that you're gonna find here in Westwood. You're gonna find the higher end homes are gonna be more new construction. and then you are gonna find mostly colonials, raised ranches,
You'll have split, you know, raised ranchers split levels, but also Cape South homes, ranch style homes. Two family houses you're not gonna find a lot of. We do have a few, but not a lot. ⁓ And that also goes along with condos. We don't have a huge condominium market here. we have a few newer condo complexes. ⁓ one is in Islington and one is over on University F. ⁓
Both are great commuter locations. They're near ⁓ our train stations. So that's ideal. ⁓ but we don't have, you know, these large complexes that have ⁓ massive amounts of ⁓ condominiums. we do have a few rentals here in Westwood. We don't have a huge rental market, so if we have maybe two to three houses at any given time ⁓ for the rentals, that's being really good, right?
And it's mostly single family homes that'll be on the market for rent.
Mike Zarella (03:53)
So going back to the price point, you said anywhere from like eight hundred thousand to to to ten million. What does eight hundred thousand get to you? If I'm if I'm is that the sort of like the starting price point, what am I looking at?
Tammy DeWolfe (04:06)
You're looking at about a fifteen hundred square foot house, ⁓ give or take. and sh you'll get ⁓ it'll be updated. Is it updated in the last five years? Probably not. ⁓ you might get something if the lot is a little bit larger and the house isn't so updated, it's kind of a trade off there. ⁓
Mike Zarella (04:13)
Is that gonna be fairly updated or is that gonna be kind of like maybe it needs to be
Okay.
Tammy DeWolfe (04:31)
I've had a couple houses this year. One's at eight eight seventy right now and one's at eight ninety-nine. Ne one at eight seventy is updated, ⁓ but it's on a busier road. The other one that's eight ninety-nine, not really updated. It's been updated since like ⁓ the eighties, nineties. ⁓ but it's in a neighborhood, so it's a little bit higher ⁓ price point. But it's really
Mike Zarella (04:53)
Would you say you're seeing
homes that are up that are updated? Do those typically sell first?
Tammy DeWolfe (04:59)
I'm sorry, what was that question again?
Mike Zarella (05:01)
The homes that are updated are those the ones that typically sell first rather than the ones that need work? Okay.
Tammy DeWolfe (05:06)
Yes, yeah.
Well today's buyers, you know, they're looking for easy transition, right? They want to move in, they don't want to do a whole lot of work. you know, the the buyers that are in the marketplace, especially if they're on the younger side, they don't have the connections ⁓ to do the work and you know they're not really knowledgeable about how to do the work. So having the house ready to go, move in condition, let's say, is really ideal.
Mike Zarella (05:24)
Sure.
Okay. So would you also say that there's like a sweet spot price point wise in the market too? Like if something comes on at X price, you can kinda look at it and go, okay, that one's gonna sell like this weekend. you know
Tammy DeWolfe (05:45)
Yeah, it's
anywhere from typically eight hundred thousand up to one point five. ⁓ the real sweet spot is, you know, still it's been like this for the last f few years is one two to one three range is really a sweet spot. ⁓ it you're gonna get multiple offers. We're not seeing the multiple offers that we saw, you know, during COVID, but you know, my experience this year has been, you know, anywhere from three to five offers. ⁓
Mike Zarella (05:49)
Okay. Okay.
Okay. Okay.
Tammy DeWolfe (06:11)
You know, I've heard stories here in in town where, you know, if they price it under the market, they'll get sixteen offers. Yeah, that's right around a million dollars, right? So ⁓ as we move up in the food chain, you don't get as many offers.
Mike Zarella (06:20)
Wow. Okay.
Okay.
And that like one million to one point two, that's probably still maybe a smaller house, but it's more updated. Okay.
Tammy DeWolfe (06:31)
absolutely. ⁓
so this, you know, like one two to one three, let's say, it's probably about a twenty five to twenty eight hundred square foot house. Yeah.
Mike Zarella (06:40)
Okay, so pretty average size. Yep. Perfect.
so if I were to buy a home that was there and let's just say it was eight hundred thousand 'cause I really want to get into Westwood and it's all I can afford, but I do need to do some renovations, how easy is it to work with this with the town of Westwood? Is getting permits and all that relatively, you know, smooth or is that a long process?
Tammy DeWolfe (07:00)
So we ni we have a new
building inspector, ⁓ and he is phenomenal. you still have to go through the proper channels, obviously, but they're there to help you. They're not fighting against you, let's say. ⁓ but you know, it's like any other town. It's a reasonable amount of time to get your permits.
Mike Zarella (07:19)
Yeah, you never know. Some towns, you know, are average and some are like, okay, you're gonna you know, you're gonna need about six months for that permit. so talk to me a little bit about ⁓ utilities there too. Like do most homes have their own septic? Do they sometimes have their own wells or are people on town sewer? Like how does that work?
Tammy DeWolfe (07:24)
Yeah, some towns are definitely challenging. Yeah.
Most of Westwood is on town sewer. There are a few properties on the outskirts of the community that might have a septic system. ⁓ And there are some of those commun some of those homes on the outskirts that have a well also. But most of Westwood is public sewer, public water. It's the Westwood Dedham Water District.
miss. So if you're looking for gas service and you don't have it, a lot of people will utilize propane tanks either underground or above ground for cooking or heating. And we also obviously we have you know oil heat in a lot of the areas. So it's either oil or gas. We have electricity everywhere obviously but most of the town is serviced by public water and public sewer.
Mike Zarella (08:36)
Have you seen people do a lot of work with solar in the area too?
Tammy DeWolfe (08:40)
We do, yeah.
We have seen quite a bit of people doing solar ⁓ systems on their houses. They're either purchasing them outright or they have, you know, a contract for X amount of years and they pay per month. and it's not extremely challenging to deal with those those contract companies. You as soon as you get that purchase and sales sign, you really need to like submit the transfer paperwork so you know you have enough time. ⁓
Mike Zarella (08:48)
Yeah.
Sure.
Tammy DeWolfe (09:10)
If if the solar system has been purchased outright, obviously there's no paperwork to really do. It everything just transfers over.
Mike Zarella (09:15)
Yeah. Transfers
over. Yeah. That certainly makes it easier. ⁓ so Westwood is a W town and we all know they're highly sought after. ⁓ and what they all mostly come with is great school systems. So what you c what could you tell us about both the public school system and then if I'm someone that really wants to, you know, send my child to a private school, are there good options nearby?
Tammy DeWolfe (09:20)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Absolutely. So Westwood has a great school system. ⁓ that's why most people come to Westwood is because of the great school system, right? ⁓ we have four elementary schools. We have our newest one that was just built a couple years ago. They actually combined two elementary schools, the smaller of the five elementary schools at that time. ⁓ so that newer school is Pine Hill and that's on Gay Street here in Westwood. So because it combined two schools, it's about four hundred
plus kids, and that is kindergarten through fifth grade. So we also have the Martha Jones School, we have the Sheehan School and the Downey Elementary School. So those are all elementary schools throughout the town. We have one middle school, Thurston Middle School, and then our newer high school. The high school is about, let's say about twenty, twenty-two years old. ⁓ so it's on the newer side.
but yeah, our school system is, you know, in the top.
twenty five, I believe, right now. And you know, there's something for everybody in that school system, right? ⁓ and there's other options available. We have Xaverian High School that is here in Westwood. We have which that is an all-boys Catholic school. We have St. Sebastian's, which is in Needham, that's just about ten minutes away. Again, another all boys Catholic school. ⁓ Ursuline is an all-girls school that's in Dedham. And then we have ⁓
Noble and Greenough, which is also in Dedham, and that's a co-ed school. That's probably about 10 minutes away. Milton Academy is another great option. That's a co-ed school. And that's probably about 20, 15 to 20 minutes away, depending on traffic. ⁓ But there's you know there's bus services to those schools also. ⁓ So that's you know like really nice to have other options available to you.
Mike Zarella (11:34)
Yeah. Absolutely,
especially ones that are close by that really helps. so with good school systems usually comes maybe a higher tax. How does Westwood fare for taxes?
Tammy DeWolfe (11:45)
Yeah.
So we're a little we're on the higher side of tax ⁓ the taxes in the area. You know, we have great school systems. We don't have a lot of commercial business here to offset that. We do have University Station, which is on the newer side. ⁓ probably in the last ten, fifteen years we've had more businesses going in there. So we have Wegmans there, we have Nordstrom Rack there. ⁓
you know, you've got some restaurants, e that's bringing in some income for us, right? So it's kind of offsetting taxes a little bit. But we're obviously on the higher end of the tax taxes. ⁓ but we're also easy to commute into the city. So that's what makes this town so desirable.
Mike Zarella (12:12)
Some of my favorites.
Yeah, absolutely, that helps.
I was gonna ask you that too about like commuting, like just how easy, like you've got the train station there, so that must make things really easy if you wanna get and out of Boston. and you know, let's just say I work on the North Shore or the South Shore. Is that pretty easy to get right to, you know, the major arteries?
Tammy DeWolfe (12:49)
So we actually
have two train stations here in Westwood, one in Islington, ⁓ and that's like the Franklin train system. So it's going from Franklin Mass into South Station. And then we have another train station over on University Ave, which is called 128, which is also an Amtrak and a commuter rail. So that commuter rail is coming from Providence going into South Station.
Mike Zarella (13:09)
that's great.
Tammy DeWolfe (13:15)
⁓ and then Amtrak obviously, you know, they can go everywhere, right? So it just makes it easier for people who maybe have to go to New York City. It's easy for them to work on the train and get to New York City very quickly.
Mike Zarella (13:26)
That is amazing. Those are good options to have.
Let's talk a little bit about the lifestyle there as far as, you know, ⁓ you know, most most communities like, you know, a suburban area like Westwood, you do have to rely on your car. But are there certain locations in town where I could just drive my car, park it, and then I can walk around and go get a cup of coffee or go you know, shopping or or whatnot. I know we talked about University Station, but is there another section in town, maybe like an older main street or something?
Tammy DeWolfe (13:51)
Sure. Sure, sure.
Yeah, so actually the center of town, which is right on one nine, ⁓ you can park your car and you can
And you can, you know, you can do your banking, you can go to the post office, you can get breakfast, you can get lunch, you can go to Starbucks. So that's all right in the area. And you have the public ⁓ library here, which is, you know, a beautiful building. ⁓ Islington is another area that has been redeveloped, and you also have a smoothie shop there. You've got restaurants, you've got Orange Theory there, you've got a newer ⁓
Mike Zarella (14:13)
I mean.
Tammy DeWolfe (14:33)
the secondary library that's also there. ⁓ you have Roach Brothers there also. ⁓ so it's you know you can park your car and just walk around and you know feel at home.
Mike Zarella (14:44)
That's great, that's great. ⁓ so let's talk about food. let's just say I'm in town for the weekend and I want to go out for a great meal. Where are you taking me? What's one of your favorites?
Tammy DeWolfe (14:49)
yes, yeah.
So if you're gonna be here
in Westwood, my favorite place to go to is Neroli and that's in Islington. ⁓ it's an Italian restaurant and it is really, really good, great service. ⁓
If you're wanting if you're that person that likes to sit at the bar and have dinner, big huge bar, you can sit there, they serve brunch. Another option would be Bar Chino on Route 109. they have a nice big restaurant that also serves brunch. if you're just looking for a sandwich, you got pollards.
Test kitchen across the street here on 109 and you've got Comella's Pizza and I think they do subs there also. so those are great options.
Mike Zarella (15:42)
⁓ what if I have kids? Are all these places kids friend kid friendly or are some places better?
Tammy DeWolfe (15:46)
They're all kids friendly. Yeah, sure.
They're all kid friendly. ⁓ and you know, over on university we have a lot of different other other options. You have you know, if you've got a pizza shop, you've got Del Frisco's over there, ⁓ you've got I think there's a hot chicken there. You've got other options, right? So it's a lot of good restaurants here in Westwood. You don't have to go too far.
Mike Zarella (16:08)
Perfect.
Now I'm a coffee monster. Where would I get my coffee?
Tammy DeWolfe (16:14)
So we have ⁓ we have Starbucks here on 109. You have Muffin House, which is on ⁓ Washington Street in Islington. The Muffin House you have sandwiches, you can get breakfast there. ⁓ they have amazing muffins. So if you're like if your family loves muffins, the muffins are as big as my head. They are huge.
Mike Zarella (16:34)
Yeah. Perfect.
Tammy DeWolfe (16:37)
And
then we also have Dunkin' Donuts here on 109. We actually have Dunkin' Donuts in 128 train station. ⁓ so that's another option for you.
Mike Zarella (16:47)
So that sounds good. There's a good mix of some chains but also some mom and pop spots in there, so that's awesome. so talk to me about like the weekend. Okay. Maybe I don't want to drive to the Cape or I don't want to drive to the New Hampshire Mountains. ⁓ maybe I just wanna, you know, go myself or take the kids somewhere close by. ⁓ what am I gonna do? Are there parks or are there destinations that, you know, people might wanna go and hang out at? ⁓
Tammy DeWolfe (16:50)
Yeah. Yeah.
Sure,
sure. So we have Hale Reservation here in town, which is a great area to do hiking and mountain biking. ⁓ they have a lot of kids programs throughout the summertime. ⁓ so Hale Reservation also spans over into Dover, which is the next town over. ⁓ and they actually have a membership beach, which you can get a membership there and go to the beach all summer long. ⁓ you have ⁓
Buckmaster Pond, which last weekend we just had like the fishing derby, so all the kids are out there ⁓ fishing. ⁓ so there's all kinds of options here in Westwood. You can go to the library, the library has a lot of ⁓ different options. You can also get discounted or free ⁓ museum tickets for the weekends if you wanted to take your kids into the city via train. Make it a fun experience to do that. Yeah.
Mike Zarella (17:44)
So
That sounds great. Lots of good options. ⁓
so it sounds like Westwood certainly has a lot to offer in terms of just lifestyle and you know, housing options and all that, schools. where do you see the town in five years from now? Is it a town that continues to grow? Is there a lot of construction, or is it just a solid, even keeled town that just everyone consistently, you know, is is moving to?
Tammy DeWolfe (18:29)
We are seeing a good influx of people coming into town. We don't have a whole lot of open space for building per se. ⁓ so but we do have some pockets here and there, right? ⁓ you know, the one of the thing that draws people to the area is we have larger lots, right, compared to houses that and neighborhoods in like Needham, ⁓ and even in Dedham, which are the next towns over, they have smaller lots. So we have a lot of ⁓
space, you know, like we'll have a half acre lot or a quarter acre lot. We have a couple neighborhoods that are a little bit smaller, but most of the houses, most of the properties here in West are about half acre or larger, right? but it there's a lot of influx coming in because of the school system. It is a steady, ⁓ well managed town. ⁓ we have ⁓
you know, two fire stations. One is being proposed to be rebuilt because it's on the older side. ⁓ you know, we've got good school systems. We're probably gonna be updating a couple other schools in the next future, ⁓ future years, let's say, in the next five years, probably maybe another elementary school or maybe even another maybe even the ⁓ middle school might need to be updated. ⁓ so there's they're expansions, right? but
You know, we're definitely growing, right? We have University Station, which is on the newer side. So a lot of people are migrating. There's areas, there's three big areas in Westwood that you can act you have access to for restaurants and shopping and just hanging out, right? So ⁓ it's a great town that has a good base. We've got sports, we've got you know, hail reservation that brings a lot of people together. It's just a good area to live and raise family if that's what you're into.
Mike Zarella (20:23)
Sounds perfect all around. so knowing that you're an expert of the town, if someone was looking to buy there, ⁓ is there anything that they might not necessarily find easily online or in the brochure, so to speak, about Westwood that you would want to, you know, advise to to buyers?
Tammy DeWolfe (20:44)
Say, I don't know if there's any like hidden secret, like you know, ⁓ nobody knows about this. Most everything that you can find on any of these towns is ⁓ pretty accessible. You know, right now we're we're having a little bit of a challenge of getting a a new fire station approved because it was approved for a very large fire station and
Mike Zarella (20:48)
Yeah. Yeah.
Tammy DeWolfe (21:08)
you know, we don't need that big of one, but we need another one, right? So that's something that's being talked about. ⁓ you know, and there could be an override for that. So that's something that might be, you know, something to think about in the future. gas service down certain streets, ⁓ proposing new sidewalks, you know, all these things this is a very walkable town, but we don't have a lot of sidewalks, right? So you know, I think
Mike Zarella (21:11)
Yeah.
Tammy DeWolfe (21:37)
Five year plan, if we could get some more sidewalks, that'd be really great. ⁓ to really connect, you know, 109 to maybe Washington Street where Islington is, that would be amazing. and you know, this is a dog-friendly community. We have a lot of dogs, a lot of people out walking dogs on the streets. ⁓ people take their dogs to Hale. ⁓ a lot of people go and have coffee at Buckmaster Pond with their dogs. So, you know.
Mike Zarella (21:41)
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
that's
Depending on what your family looks like, there's something for everyone.
Tammy DeWolfe (22:08)
It's really really is, you know, like there's
a lot of great things that are happening here in Westwood. But I think just getting a sense, right? So when I meet people for the first time and they're thinking about buying here in Westwood, you know, I talk to them about all the great things that are happening here and what they can do and where they can eat and where they can have coffee, just like we're talking about now. But I actually encourage them to go do that on their own, not just me, because I know a lot of people. They're all gonna come and talk to me.
Mike Zarella (22:28)
Yeah, yeah.
Tammy DeWolfe (22:37)
but they're not gonna know them, right? So if they go there and they just spark up a conversation, people are willing to talk to you and and give you some insight to towns and neighborhoods.
Mike Zarella (22:47)
Absolutely.
⁓ so everything that you've said so far sounds amazing. ⁓ but no place is perfect to live. ⁓ is there any sort of elephant in the room about Westwood? ⁓ any kind of challenge that there might be to living there ⁓ that you can think of?
Tammy DeWolfe (23:09)
Challenge? I don't know if it's a challenge. You know
Some people think that the challenge is that we don't have gas service in every single street. Some people think that's a challenge. you know. Yeah, right. you know, I would say could we use a few more restaurants? That would be amazing. I think if we could get some more sidewalks in the town, because I'm a big walker and I love walking my dog, I think that would be really great. But, you know, there's really no like down.
Mike Zarella (23:21)
All the chefs.
Mm. Sure.
Not a big
Tammy DeWolfe (23:46)
side right? Yeah,
Mike Zarella (23:46)
compromise. Yeah.
Tammy DeWolfe (23:47)
you know, like every town that you move to, there's always gonna be a compromise. But in general, like we have all good things. We've got two strain two train stations, we've got two ⁓ libraries, we've got two fire stations. You know, we have easy access to the highways. You don't have that everywhere, right?
Mike Zarella (23:51)
Sure.
Yeah.
Yeah. And good schools
and parks. Like what else can we for?
Tammy DeWolfe (24:09)
And we've got good schools and we've
got pi private schools around us. So it's really like this one spot that is easy access to everything, which really is ideal for commuters and the moms that are traveling to all different towns to get their kids to sporting events, right? So it's really easy to get in and out of.
Mike Zarella (24:13)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yep. Perfect. ⁓ so I've covered kind of a lot. Is there anything that you think that I missed or we didn't talk about that you think anyone should know about Westwood that's considering living there?
Tammy DeWolfe (24:46)
Getting involved is really important to make yourself ⁓ part of the community, right? So if you move here and you have no kids,
Mike Zarella (24:52)
Okay.
Tammy DeWolfe (24:56)
Go to the restaurants, get to know people. There are people here that are empty nesters basically. And it's not all about the kids, but it's about bringing a community together. So getting involved, going to the library, going out to have dinner someplace, just getting to know people, go to Hale, get involved in different organizations.
Mike Zarella (25:19)
Absolutely, absolutely. Well Tammy, thank you so much for all this valuable insight for Westwood. If somebody is looking to buy in Westwood, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?
Tammy DeWolfe (25:29)
They can easily call me on my cell phone and that number is seven eight one two four eight one five three four or they can email me and the email will be in the remarks below, I believe.
Mike Zarella (25:40)
Yep, we'll put that
content information down below too for him. ⁓ we'll Perfect. ⁓ All right, Tammy, thanks again so much. It was really great to have you today.
Tammy DeWolfe (25:43)
And you can just simply Google Tammy DeWolfe or DeWolfe Living, you're gonna find me.
Thank you so much. Have a great day, Mike.
