Boulder Ridge

1995 to 1998 straddles the boundary precisely

A home from 1995 may have it; one from 1998 almost certainly does not. And because the transition was gradual and depended on the individual builder's practice as much as on the calendar, the year narrows the question without settling it.

So the piping should be identified by material during the inspection rather than inferred from the year, the builder or the street. Where it has been replaced, that is a documented selling point worth stating plainly — it removes the largest question this era raises, and buyers in this county have learned to ask.

At around thirty years the first full replacement cycle has arrived. Original roofs are at or past the end of a typical asphalt shingle service life, so a roof here should have been done at least once — ask when, by whom and what warranty came with it. Furnaces, air conditioning and water heaters are at or beyond expectancy, and original double-glazed windows show seal failure as fogging between the panes.

The item specific to this period is exterior cladding and its edges. Hardboard and early composite products perform according to how their ends, edges and penetrations were sealed and how the ground drains away, and thirty years is long enough for careless detailing to have declared itself. The bottom courses, and anywhere a deck meets a wall, are where to look.

A four-year build also usually means more than one recorded plat, and restrictions attach to plats rather than to marketing names — so terms can differ between sections of what looks from the street like one neighborhood.

Pittsfield Township, and the three lines

Pittsfield Charter Township occupies the ground south and east of the City of Ann Arbor, and it is one of the more consequential municipalities in this county precisely because so much of it carries other places' names in the mail.

It is a separate government from the city with its own board, tax rate, services, zoning and assessor. An Ann Arbor mailing address here does not mean Ann Arbor taxes or Ann Arbor services, and the rate difference is real and recurring.

School assignment follows a third line again, and this is where Pittsfield Township is genuinely unpredictable. The area records three distinct patterns within the township: an Ann Arbor address with Pittsfield taxes and Saline schools; Pittsfield taxes with Ann Arbor schools; and a Ypsilanti address with Pittsfield taxes and Ann Arbor schools. No direction of inference works, and the answer belongs to the district rather than to a summary.

Match comparable sales on district as well as on municipality. District is one of the larger drivers of price difference between otherwise comparable homes, and getting it wrong in either direction distorts an analysis substantially.

All four answers are free and obtainable in an afternoon, and very few people get all four.

Ranches and two-story homes, and finished basements

A range of 1,400 to 2,500 square feet with three to five bedrooms is about 79 percent, so the neighborhood holds two products at two price points, and matching on form comes before matching on area.

The ranch reaches the widest and most persistent buyer pool, because single-level living is a requirement rather than a preference for a substantial and growing number of buyers. Two-story homes of the same measured area compete against a different set of alternatives.

Bathroom counts of one-and-a-half to three are worth reading carefully. Michigan listings state full bathrooms before the decimal and half bathrooms after, so one-and-a-half means one full and one half, and two-point-one means two full and one half. A listing writing two and a half is using the national convention instead. Count fixtures at a showing.

That range also tells you something. A neighborhood built in four years to a builder's catalog would not naturally produce both one-and-a-half and three bathrooms unless the catalog itself was broad or homes have been altered since. Either way, bathroom count should be matched rather than averaged.

Finished basements are named here, and below-grade finished space is generally not credited by appraisers in the same way as above-grade square footage. Two homes with identical total finished area can appraise differently depending on how much sits below grade — a reason to expect the appraisal arithmetic to differ from the listing arithmetic, and for a seller to be precise about which part of a stated area is below grade.

A finished basement also conceals what an inspector would otherwise see: foundation walls, framing and any staining indicating past water. Check grade falling away, downspouts discharging well clear, no staining at the base of finished walls, and whether the sump pump has a battery backup. And ask whether the finishing was permitted, particularly where a bedroom is in it — the township's building department holds the record at no cost.

An Ann Arbor address is not necessarily the City of Ann Arbor

The City of Ann Arbor is ringed by townships — Scio, Pittsfield, Ann Arbor, Superior and Lodi among them — whose mailing addresses read Ann Arbor. A mailing address is a delivery route rather than a jurisdiction.

Each township is a separate government with its own board, tax rate, services, zoning and assessor. The rate difference between a city parcel and a township one is real and recurring, which is why comparable sales must be matched on municipality. Rates and taxable values both change, so compare the current millage and the parcel's own taxable value rather than a remembered difference; a tax bill arrives on the local schedule, and a lender collects an estimated share of it monthly.

School assignment follows a third line again. Three distinct versions of the split exist around here — Ann Arbor addresses with Pittsfield taxes and Saline schools; Pittsfield taxes with Ann Arbor schools; and a Ypsilanti address with Pittsfield taxes and Ann Arbor schools — which together show that no direction of inference works.

Four tiers of protected open space

Where open ground adjoins a property, ownership is the first thing that decides whether it stays open — but not the only one.

Land held by a public body is generally the most durable, though a public body can still sell or repurpose land. Land under a recorded conservation easement is next — an easement runs with the land, surviving a change of owner and of local board. Association common area is real protection that the owners themselves pay for. Unbuilt private land carries the least protection of the four, but that is not the same as none: zoning, recorded deed restrictions and state wetland regulation can each constrain what may be built, filled or cleared, and EGLE requires authorization for specified activities affecting regulated wetland.

From a window all four look identical, which is why it is worth checking the record rather than the view: ownership, any recorded easement or restriction, the zoning, whether wetland is mapped, and whether a development application has already been approved.

Schools

Boulder Ridge is served by Ann Arbor Public Schools. District boundaries are redrawn from time to time.

Buying or selling here

The year, the district and the piping are the three things that decide a transaction here, and all three are free or nearly so.

For a seller, the assessor's year built and documentation that the supply piping has been replaced answer the era question, and the district's written confirmation answers the one buyers most often assume.