When I visit Mom at her assisted living home, I almost always travel down Ruth Street, between Hillside and the Crosstown. Two things impress me the most about this neighborhood: the wonderful, cool tall trees in summer and the arrangement of the houses.
Let me explain. Houses in this area are modestly small cottages compared to the McMansions in new subdivisions. However, as you travel along Ruth, you begin to notice this pattern: stick-built, mobile, stick-built, mobile, stick-built, mobile.
It's as though the smart money years ago was careful to place a house on one half of its comfortably large lot -- in case the market picked up (or demand from summer tourists improved). At which time the home-owner was ready to sell half the lot or put up a rental unit on it.
I've heard disparaging words about this general neighborhood; on the other hand, I've also seen some signs of incipient gentrification. The prices as seen on Zillow.com range from under $100 K to $200 K for individual houses -- well under the city's median of $368,000.
Only time will tell what will happen to this area.
Now that's an excellent and astute observation on the *natural life cycle* of RE development. One that I wouldn't expect someone outside the business to make.
ReplyDeleteOr even someone INSIDE the biz!...