Maple Ridge

Maple Ridge is a platted subdivision of single-family houses on the northwest side of Ann Arbor, between North Maple Road and the Arbor Heights plats off Miller Avenue, about a mile and three quarters west of downtown. It covers roughly a quarter mile square.

It is worth saying plainly that this one is inside the City of Ann Arbor, because so much of what carries an Ann Arbor address is not. Maple Ridge appears by that name on the city's recorded plat map, so the city is the assessor, the taxing municipality and the permit office — no township question to settle here, which is unusual enough in this directory to be a fact in its own right.

The plats immediately around it went in during the early-to-mid 1950s: Arbor Heights and Arbor Heights No. 2 to the east from 1950, Westaire Terrace to the northwest by 1956. That makes a 1950s house the reasonable expectation here, but expectation is not evidence — get the assessor's year built for the specific address, because it is free and it sets the entire inspection agenda.

Restrictions attach to the recorded plat rather than to the name on the street sign, so pull the instrument recorded against the parcel from the Washtenaw County Register of Deeds. Ask me what has sold here and I will tell you how it compares with the neighbouring plats, which are close enough to be genuine comparables and different enough to need adjusting.

• —On the city's recorded plat map, so the township question does not arise
• —Neighbouring plats are 1950s, which makes the assessor's year built the first call
• —Deed restrictions attach to the plat, not to the marketing name
• —Arbor Heights and Westaire Terrace next door are close comparables that still need adjusting
• —Three communities in this directory are called some version of Maple Ridge