The lowest-priced home on this month’s map sold for $100,000: a 768-square-foot, two-bedroom, one-bath Arbor Heights condo at 4198 Packard in Pittsfield Township.
The highest-priced home fetched $2.3 million: a 4,831-square-foot, four-bedroom, six-bath home at 2010 Devonshire, with an adjacent lot on Washtenaw.
The best deal of the month closed at $490,000: a 1,740-square-foot, three-bedroom, three-and-a-half bath home at 1020 Belmont.
The Belmont house will be the latest renovation project of local attorney Susan Edwards’ Homespun Properties. As we wrote in June 2019, Edwards began buying and renovating homes in Downriver Detroit with her brother, a building trades instructor, during the Great Recession. In 2016, she made her first Ann Arbor purchase: a beautiful but neglected Tudor on the corner of Devonshire and Melrose for just $242,000 (she said she secured it just a day before the electricity was due to be shut off in anticipation of demolition). After replacing its plumbing, electrical, and HVAC systems, siding, roof, and much more, she sold it a year later for $985,000.
Edwards’ goal, she said, was not just profit. In the face of new, sometimes massive construction in the area, she wanted to maintain the harmony of the neighborhood by keeping the buildings she renovated “pretty much the same but better.” When we spoke to her two years ago, she was excited about installing new plumbing in 2335 Hill, a 2,094-square-foot, natural brick Cape Cod that she had bought for $475,000.
In a stunning transformation, Edwards replaced a deteriorating back porch with a small addition that opened up views of picturesque tiered gardens; installed a completely new kitchen and half bath; replaced the windows; refinished floors; stripped away 1950s-vintage wallpaper and paneling; and installed substantial double doors refurbished by Materials Unlimited. The iconic square and rectangle yellow tiles on the family bathroom floor might be the only trace left of the home’s mid-century origins. It sold last April for $889,000–$6,000 more than its latest asking price.
Sales priced at $1 million or more show no sign of slowing down. A dozen more made it onto this month’s map, including a penthouse condominium at the Mark, just west of downtown on Liberty, which sold for $1,650,000.
The seller, Jon Oberheide, might get some credit for the increase in the number of million-dollar-home buyers. In October 2018, Duo Security, the company he cofounded with Dug Song, sold to Cisco for $2.35 billion, creating an estimated fifty-plus new millionaires among its staff.
