The seven-figure house on a six-figure street: In 2017, Kathi and Michael Alcock bought a 2-bedroom, 1-bath, 1,073-square-foot ranch at 820 Daniel for $335,000. They tore it down to build a 2,241-square-foot, 3-bedroom, 2.5-bath home with dramatic roof angles, natural wood, and gray masonry. Kathi’s trust sold it in May for $1.685 million. It was never listed, but you can see what that bought at 820danielstreet.com. Nothing else on the block comes anywhere close to that value—and the sale won’t change that. The price “puts it in a class of its own,” Observer real estate consultant Sue Maguire says. “It doesn’t really increase the value of the other homes because it’s unique.”
A cautionary Zillow tale: The algorithm used by the nation’s most popular real estate site is usually in the ballpark of what property is worth—but not always. Consider the peculiar case of 306 Mulholland Ave., a cute 3-bedroom, 1-bath Craftsman bungalow on the Old West Side that sold in May for $554,400. This sale was also off-market, which will delay the accurate price update in the information stream that Zillow feeds off. But even so, the site’s estimated value as of mid-June—$270,200—is unfathomable for a home that sold in August 2018 for $326,000 and in April 2022 for $468,000. It’s a reminder that sometimes artificial intelligence can be really dumb.
This Old House of the Month: The 6-bedroom, 3-bath, 3,078-square-foot manse at 2117 Washtenaw Ave. has lived a few lives since its 1854 origin. The Bell-Spaulding House, as it is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, started out as the Bell family’s small Greek Revival farmhouse. In the 1860s, the Spauldings added a larger, Italianate section. It is best known locally, though, as the Tuomy House, for the family that bought it in 1874 and held it until 1966, when it was given to the city for “a historic purpose,” according to an essay posted by the Ann Arbor District Library. It was the headquarters for the Historical Society of Michigan until its sale to a private owner in 2007. Per its most recent real estate listing description, it still has its original pine flooring and hand-painted window glass. It is on the map this month after selling for an unusually precise $1 million.