Would You Be My Neighbor?

It seems as though our moving in has prompted a mass exodus from the neighborhood, but I'm sure the two events are not related. The house right behind us, when we moved in was occupied by a nice older couple who had built their home in 1950. It's a cozy little place, they raised their two boys there. The husband passed away last summer, and the wife then passed in September. For the past year, a granddaughter, who is a student at the university has lived there. Neither son is local. They have been spending lots of time cleaning out this year, and the house hit the market last weekend.

As I said the house is cozy, 2 bedrooms on first floor and a finished office area in the half story upstairs. I'm a shade under 5'8" and love knee walls, but it feels small even to me. There is a a finished family room with a fireplace in the basement. There is a huge garage and workshop out the back, which once we cut down our 35 years of scrub overgrowth is the most prominent item in our backyard view. There is a carport with upstairs deck on it, and two storage sheds.

There is a large side yard, which once was part of our property, sold after Bess died in the early 70's. It was where she had her garden (according to her journals, and photos, she planted 40 tomatoes each year, as well as a full compliment of everything else. This space is occupied by a very large very immoble camper. It will be interesting to see what it will look like with that moved out. Here is a pic from the county assessor's site:


Here's the layout also from the assessor:


The real estate listing says that is has 1200 sq ft above grade plus 500 in the basement. The assessor says 996 above grade plus basement. I think the assessor is more accurate. The asking price is $250K, which seemed steep to me until I looked up the assessed value and found it was $222K. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Also our neighbors across the street are moving into a luxury retirement center that will be opening this fall. They asked if we knew of anyone who might be interested in their home, we sent friends their way, who loved the place, but the couple wasn't sure what to ask yet. After consulting with a realtor they decided on $395K which was too high for our friends. I hadn't realized how big their place is, its a mid century modern, also built in 1950. I've been in the living room and it is lovely. Turns out that place is 2200+ square feet above grade with another 1200 below! It has 5 bedrooms. This couple bought it 4 years ago, their son and his family had lived in the basement but have since moved. Sadly, health issues are forcing this decision. I was shocked at the price until I looked to see that it is assessed at $405K! Assessments really jumped here two years ago, that place went up $80K that year.


So, if you want to move to great neighborhood that will someday have a view of a nice looking bungalow check us out. Just don't expect us to get the bungalow finished too soon. Here is our neighborhood map. We are the hot pink, small house is orange, big MCM is gold: