Georgetown Commons
One hundred and sixteen condominiums built by the Bert L. Smokler Company between 1972 and 1977
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Era notes describe what a build date makes likely across houses of that period. A year built is not proof of what any one property contains: materials, alterations and equipment are established from the records and an appropriate inspection.
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From MichRIC listing data inside the boundary on the map, homes for sale and sales from the last six months together, refreshed with the feed (Oct 9). Below five sales a row gives the range rather than a median.
About Georgetown Commons
Georgetown Commons is a condominium community of 116 units on Ann Arbor's south side. The Bert L. Smokler Company began building it in 1972 and completed it in 1977, and it has its own condominium association.
It is one of three developments in this part of the city carrying the Georgetown name, and they are genuinely different products rather than sections of one community.
- —116 condominiums built 1972–1977 by the Bert L. Smokler Company
- —Three Georgetown developments sit nearby and are genuinely different products
- —A single-family sale is not evidence about a condominium here, or the reverse
- —At fifty years, the reserve study matters more than the inspection of the unit
- —116 units divide a major program into a manageable per-unit figure — if reserved for
- —Smokler's name is also on the adjoining neighborhood and on a Ypsilanti subdivision
Three Georgetowns, and they are not the same place
This is the first thing to sort out, because the names collide in every search. Georgetown is the single-family subdivision. Georgetown Commons — this one — is a condominium community of 116 units. Georgetown Condos, sometimes listed as Georgetown Village, is a separate attached-housing development again, of roughly 96 units from the early 1970s, on the south side of the Georgetown Country Club off Eisenhower and Stone School.
They sit near one another in the same part of the city and were built in overlapping years, which is why the confusion persists. But they are different products with different ownership structures, different associations and different price behavior.
The consequence for a comparable-sales analysis is material rather than cosmetic: a single-family sale is not evidence about a condominium here, and a sale in one condominium association is weak evidence about another with its own budget and its own reserve position. Establish which development an address belongs to before anything else, and get the governing documents for that one rather than for Georgetown generally.
A fourth Georgetown exists in Ypsilanti Township near Textile and Tuttle Hill Road, and has nothing to do with any of these.
A fifty-year-old condominium
Construction finished in 1977, which puts this among the older condominium stock in the county — and in a condominium, age lands on the association rather than on the individual owner in a way that changes what a buyer should look at.
Roofs, drives, siding, common plumbing and any shared mechanical plant have all been replaced at least once and are due again on a rolling basis. Across 116 units a major program divides into a manageable per-unit figure, which is an advantage over a thirty-unit association — but only if it has been reserved for.
So the reserve study is the single most consequential document in the transaction, more so than the inspection of the unit itself. Ask what the assessment has done over the last five years rather than only what it is today; a flat assessment on fifty-year-old common elements is a question, not a reassurance. And read the minutes, which is where a pending special assessment or a long-running maintenance argument surfaces first.
Inside the unit, the ordinary agenda applies for the era: original electrical service capacity, galvanized or early plastic supply piping, single-glazed or early double-glazed windows where they survive, and whatever the master deed says the owner rather than the association is responsible for. That division is written down and is worth reading rather than assuming.
Bert L. Smokler, whose name is on plats in two counties
The developer behind a good deal of this part of Ann Arbor is worth knowing, because his name turns up repeatedly across the area once you notice it.
The Bert L. Smokler Company began building Georgetown Commons in 1972 and finished in 1977. The adjoining single-family Georgetown neighborhood is sometimes called the Smokler Hutzel neighborhood locally, after its developers. And over in Ypsilanti Township, the Smokler Textile subdivision — built 1973 to 1979 and recorded in more than one plat — carries the same name.
That matters practically rather than merely as trivia. A developer working at scale across a region builds to a consistent standard and a consistent vocabulary, so the construction questions that apply in one of his subdivisions frequently apply in the others. If you have looked at one Smokler development and know what its houses do well and badly, that knowledge travels further than it usually would.
The southeast side around it
This part of Ann Arbor sits between the city's south and east edges, and its character comes from what is nearby rather than from a downtown at its center.
Briarwood Mall and the retail along South State and Eisenhower are minutes away, as is I-94. The University of Michigan's south campus, the medical campus and the stadium are a short run north, and St Joseph Mercy's hospital campus is east on Washtenaw. Between them those are the largest employment concentrations in the county.
The trade being made here is straightforward and worth stating as a trade: excellent access in several directions, and a downtown that is a drive rather than a stroll. For a household with two commutes in different directions, that position is much of the appeal, and it is worth measuring in a real weekday journey rather than in map miles.
Schools
These communities are served by Ann Arbor Public Schools. Assignment is set by address rather than by neighborhood name, and district boundaries in this county follow neither municipal nor postal lines.
Buying or selling here
One hundred and sixteen units of consistent type give a legible comparable set, which makes pricing tractable once the analysis stays inside this association rather than wandering across the Georgetown names.
Community details reflect public records and local knowledge and can change — always verify what matters to your purchase. Explore more of Ann Arbor's neighborhoods, or browse active listings.