While some effects of the Covid pandemic have faded, home prices remain higher than they were in the before times. 

The median sales price of a single-family home in Wareham rose from $279,000 in 2019 to $420,000 in 2022, according to data from the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, with each figure representing the year’s 12-month average. 

These rising sale prices have also affected property assessments — the values homes are assigned for the purposes of property taxes. 

The Assessors Department does a full re-evaluation of property assessments every five years, but it does interim adjustments every year, said Director of Assessment Jacqui Nichols. 

"There has been a trend upward significantly over the past few years in the residential market, so we have had to change our evaluations to mirror the market," said Nichols. 

The total assessed value of all the residential property in Wareham has gone from $3.07 billion in 2019 to $4.15 billion in 2023, according to data from the Massachusetts Division of Local Services. The value of all commercial properties has stayed the same across that time period; Nichols said commercial properties haven't risen at the same rate, and that the two markets don't necessarily mirror each other. 

The current values from the Assessors Department reflect home values from 2022, said Nichols — the department's data runs a year behind. This summer, it will start work on the next five-year reassessment, which will come into effect in Fiscal Year '25; this reassessment will look at all properties, including commercial and residential. 

"For this re-evaluation, we'll be using the 2023 sales," said Nichols. She added there may have been a change in the market in 2023, which will be reflected in the reassessment, but her office has yet to do the analytics to be sure. 

In the view of Hugh Harp, a Wareham-based realtor with Bold Real Estate, the residential market stabilized in 2023. 

"It depends on what town you're in, [but for] Wareham, things are still stable," said Harp. "Nothing's really increasing like it was back in 2022, and then half of 2023."

The year-to-date median sales price of a single-family home in Wareham was $419,900 for 2023, just $100 lower than the $420,000 figure for 2022. 

Harp predicts this newfound stability may continue into 2024, in part due to high interest rates. Few homeowners are selling — they're holding onto the mortgages they got during the low-interest rate Covid era — and this low inventory is keeping prices high, said Harp.

On the other hand, he added, the homes that do hit the market take a while to sell because buyers are waiting for prices to drop. Harp said homes that used to sell in under a week are now spending up to 100 days on the market. 

While the market has stabilized, it still has homes priced above what they're worth, according to Harp. "Sellers are at a stalemate, and they're unrealistic, because of all this fake value that came into the market post-Covid, when the interest rates really dropped," he said. 

As the market shifts, the Assessors Department will continue to make adjustments in the value of Wareham homes and to try and communicate the reasons for those adjustments. 

"We're always trying to be transparent,” said Nichols. "Part of what we do is to educate people because it is a really big bill for people and we want them to understand where it's coming from."