Wildwood Park

A house from around 1920, and what it asks

A house of this age is a known quantity to anyone who works on them, and the questions are specific rather than vague. None of them is a reason to walk away; all of them are cheaper to establish before an offer than after.

Wiring first. Houses of the period were originally wired with knob-and-tube, which has no ground conductor and was designed for a fraction of the load a modern household puts on it. Most such houses have been rewired at least in part over a century, but partial rewiring is common — the visible panel is modern while original circuits survive in walls and ceilings. Some insurers ask about it directly. Have an electrician establish what is actually in the walls rather than judging by the panel, and establish the service capacity while you are at it.

Plumbing second. Galvanized steel supply piping corrodes internally over decades, so flow drops before anything fails; the symptom is poor pressure at upper fixtures. Drain lines of the period are usually cast iron inside and cast iron or clay outside, and on a street with a century of tree growth, root intrusion into the lateral is the ordinary failure. A camera inspection of that line is not part of a standard home inspection, costs comparatively little, and is among the best-value checks available on a house of this age.

Lead-based paint third. Anything before 1978 carries a federal disclosure requirement, and a house of the 1920s will have had lead paint at some point in its life. Intact paint under later coats is generally not a hazard; disturbed paint during renovation is the risk, and sensible practice during any work is well established.

Materials fourth. Buildings of this era and the decades after can contain asbestos in pipe and boiler insulation, in some floor tiles and adhesives, and in some exterior siding products. Identification is straightforward, removal is regulated, and undisturbed material in good condition is generally managed rather than removed.

And the fabric itself: plaster over lath rather than plasterboard, usually no insulation in the wall cavities, and original single-glazed windows. Those are the three things that most affect comfort and running cost, and the three that most reward money spent.

The old west side, and the historic-status distinction

This is one of the older residential quarters of the city, and any address in or near it raises a question that catches buyers regularly because the two things sound identical and do entirely different work.

National Register listing is largely honorific. On its own it does not restrict what an owner may do to a private house — no approval is required for windows, siding, porches, colors or demolition, and nobody is obliged to restore anything. It confers recognition, it can open access to certain tax credits for qualifying work, and it triggers review only where federal money or a federal permit is involved.

A local historic district is a different instrument entirely. Where a municipality has adopted one by ordinance, a commission reviews proposed exterior changes and issues or refuses a certificate of appropriateness, and that review is binding — windows, roofing, cladding, porches, additions and demolition.

The two can overlap, be different shapes, or exist without each other. So the question is not whether a house is in a historic area, but whether it is in a local historic district with a commission, and what that commission actually reviews. The city's planning department answers it for a specific address at no cost.

The answer changes real numbers. Where local review applies, replacement windows may need to be wood rather than vinyl, a roof may need to match, and an addition may need approval before it is designed. Known in advance that is manageable; discovered afterward it is expensive. It is also a genuine protection — it is what keeps a street looking as it does, which is usually much of why a buyer wanted it.

There is a related point about value. For a house of this age, the buyer pool is narrower and considerably more committed than for a modern house. People seeking a period house are seeking that thing specifically, will travel for a good example, and will pay for original fabric. Work that removes or covers it reduces what the house is worth to exactly the people most willing to pay for it, while adding little for anyone else. Sympathetic work adds value here and unsympathetic work subtracts it — the opposite of how a modern house behaves.

A century of trees

Trees planted with a neighborhood of 1920 are now a century old, and mature canopy is one of the things that most distinguishes an established street from a new one. It cannot be bought at any price in a new subdivision, and it is much of why this part of the city looks as it does.

It is also entirely the owner's obligation where the trees are on private ground. A large tree close to a house is one to have an arborist look at rather than guess about; removal of a mature tree is a four-figure expense and periodic pruning a recurring one; and at a century, structural assessment matters more than it does on a younger tree.

Roots interact with drains, driveways and foundations over decades. On a street of this age the drain lateral running to the sewer is usually clay or cast iron, and root intrusion is the ordinary failure — which is why the camera inspection mentioned above is one I add on a house of this age here specifically rather than in general.

Canopy over a roof is the everyday version: leaf drop into gutters and valleys, which is exactly where roofs fail first, and shade that keeps surfaces damp and shortens the life of a covering.

Where trees stand in the public right-of-way rather than on the lot, they are usually the city's, and the city's forestry rules govern what may be done to them — including by the adjoining owner. Worth asking rather than assuming, particularly where a verge tree is the cause of a lifted sidewalk section the owner may be asked to repair.

That last point is worth its own note: in many Michigan municipalities sidewalk repair liability sits with the adjoining property owner, and old walks plus old trees is precisely the combination that produces lifted sections. Replacing one is a real four-figure expense, and the municipality answers who is responsible 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.

Buying or selling here

The wiring, the drain lateral and the historic question are the three things worth settling here, and all three are inexpensive relative to the decision.

For a seller, an electrician's written account of what is actually in the walls, a camera inspection of the drain lateral, and the city's written answer on local historic district status remove the three things most likely to slow a sale of a house this age. Original detail is worth photographing and describing rather than leaving to be noticed.

Not to be confused with

• Wildwood · Ann Arbor