Only thirty-nine existing single-family homes in the Ann Arbor Public Schools district were entered into the Ann Arbor Area Board of Realtors’ Multiple Listing Service in December. By mid-January, just eight were still available.
With home buyers chasing a shrinking inventory, the catastrophic real estate crash of 2007 seems all but forgotten. But not so long ago, the problem was not too little supply, but too much.
Touchstone Co-Housing, in Scio Township, was the third in a series of communities on the far west side of the school district. It had been approved for forty-six units, and by 2006, thirty-four had neared completion. Developer Bill Kinley says in retrospect, they probably should have held off on completing the last of those.
When the recession hit, Kinley says, the “faucet shut off.” As lenders teetered on the edge of insolvency, they stopped making mortgages. Even buyers who were working could no longer get financing. Several units needed to be filled by renters; it took until “roughly 2010”, says Kinley, to sell the last of them. But when Kinley sold his company, Phoenix Contractors, to an employee, he retained the building site where the last twelve condominiums were to be built.
As Praxis Properties, Kinley and his son Tyler began construction on the final dozen homes in the summer of 2019. Using buyer feedback, the site was redesigned and floorplans improved. The new units are located in four buildings: two with two units, and two with four. All are situated to give the units windows on three sides of the building. Upper-level floorplans all have balconies, as well as 9′ ceilings that rise to 12′ in an 800-square-foot loft space. Four of the lower-level homes have south-facing walkout basements.
One of those four makes this month’s map. 560 Little Lake Dr., is a 1,008-square-foot, two-bedroom, two-bath home that features deluxe painted-maple cabinets, a wet bar in the basement, egress windows, composite deck, and a separate garage. It sold for $369,320.
Sometimes odd numbers in sales prices can indicate a “bidding war,” when the winner’s precision amount used in an escalation clause is reflected in the final price. But numbers as specific as this one usually indicate a new build. Most builders have set prices, and any negotiations taking place will typically apply to other aspects of the sale.
A resale in the neighboring Great Oaks complex is also on this month’s map. Almost twenty years older and somewhat smaller at 909 square feet, it has only one bath and an unfinished basement. It sold for $270,000.
All three co-housing neighborhoods are built on a sense of community, governing themselves by consensus and offering opportunities to gather for shared meals and events.
