A record-breaking map—and our online alternative: There are more than 270 sales charted here, and we wish we could say the market is suddenly roaring. In truth, that crowd of triangles and circles reflects the assessors of Scio and Superior townships catching up after not uploading their sales to the state’s online database for months. Some assessors pause to incorporate the year’s new property-tax data, but this year’s delay was longer than usual.
Local starchitects tied to several sales: This month saw a cluster of famed old-time designers name-checked as a key brag. The homes include 2445 Adare Rd., a 1964 ranch with 4 bedrooms and 2.2 baths (two full and two half) by the late U-M architecture dean Bob Metcalf that went for $1.175 million ($25,000 over asking); 3140 Dolph Dr., a 1959-built 3-bedroom, 3.1-bath A-frame by Frank Lloyd Wright protégé Larry Brink that went for $1.02 million ($121,100 over asking); and 3122 Geddes Rd., a 1938-built 4-bedroom, 2.2 bath ranch by W.B. Lorenz with a more recent second floor that sold for $720,000. Sometimes, it isn’t the actual architect—the listing for 1706 South University Ave., a 1910-built, 6-bedroom, 2.1-bath Tudor revival that sold for $1.15 million, doesn’t say who designed it, only that Albert Kahn “consulted.”
This Old House of the Month: Four big windows on the third floor add intrigue to the 1928 Colonial revival at 785 Arlington Blvd., sold for the distinctive price of $1,761,936. A house this tall with an upper level that’s more than loft or dormer space is unusual, and the listing for this 5- to 6-bedroom, 5.1-bath, 4,798-square-foot mansion on a half-acre refers to that third floor as providing “versatile space for [another] bedroom, creative studio, or guest suite, complete with its own bath and peaceful views of the backyard.” The mansion’s occupants are also historic; U-M electrical engineering prof John Van den Broek is credited with a key design element of transmission towers in the 1930s, and the next owner, botany prof William Randolph Taylor, was famed for surveying Bikini Atoll flora before and after A-bomb tests.