Buy PhotoBuy PhotoBuy PhotoBuy PhotoBuy PhotoBuy PhotoBuy PhotoBuy PhotoBuy PhotoBuy PhotoBuy PhotoBuy PhotoBuy PhotoBuy PhotoBuy PhotoBuy Photo

• 
• 
• 
• 

Last SlideNext Slide

With a flush of new restaurants and escalating house prices, West Village is a poster child for Detroit hot spots right now. One of the first homes to be built there – this 1900 stone and shingle-style house — not only is a handsome specimen, but it’s also a fine example of West Village’s tight house market.

Among the factors that make it typical are that the house’s value has leaped in multiples this year and that it still needs some work.

It’s no surprise West Village house prices sank in the recession. Banks stopped lending here altogether, and there are still a few blighted houses. But this neighborhood’s comeback is dramatic.

In 2011, this house, badly damaged by flooding from frozen pipes, was priced as a foreclosure for $26,000. It sold higher than that, but still dirt cheap. Now after many repairs — not all are done — it was listed for sale last month at $279,000. It quickly got several offers, one of them now pending, said Realtor Hubert Jason Hill.

Realcomp multiple listing service shows that two houses on Van Dyke Avenue came up for sale this summer and both changed to “sale pending” status within a week. “The West Village market has literally corrected itself since the start of 2015,” Hill said.

West Village is about 20 square blocks, directly next to Indian Village. It was platted and built in the early 1900s with strict rules about materials, cost, height and street setbacks. That made it an enclave of upper-middle class Detroiters. Now it’s on the National Register of Historic Places.

Even here, this house’s architecture is distinctive. It is East Coast shingle-style with a gambrel cedar roof that wraps the upper floors. The base is stone, even to the stone porch pillars.

The side that faces Van Dyke Place has a substantial stone porch with a roof. In 1900 this was the horse and carriage entry. Inside, previous owners have knocked down walls and widened arches to make an open floor plan that lets light wash through. That’s common in historic districts, Hill said. The building’s exterior can’t be altered, but owners reshape the inside.

Historic houses can be on narrow lots, but this one gets sun from its site. It’s a corner house on a double lot, so light comes from the street on one side and the open lot on the other. Across Van Dyke Place is a community garden and playscape.

The entry and main stairs are striking with a two-story ceiling and light from leaded glass windows. The house has three fireplaces, two of carved white marble, one of carved stone.

Back stairs from the kitchen leads to a separate bedroom and bath that’s private from the rest of the second floor. There’s an unfinished third floor that could be a playroom or office.

The owner’s improvements include electrical and plumbing work, hardwood floors and rebuilding the kitchen in a rustic way some owners might change. The biggest item on the still-to-do list is a new shingle roof.

Today is not this house’s first close-up. Five years ago you could have seen it in This Old House magazine. It was featured in the annual article, “Best Places to Buy an Old House.”

Back then you could have bought it for a lot less.

West Village stone house

Where: 704 Seyburn, Detroit

How much: $279,000

Bedrooms: 5

Baths: 3 full

Square feet: 2,903

Key features: Handsome East Coast shingle-style architecture in Detroit’s new hot pocket West Village where restaurants and shops are opening, and house prices and rents are climbing. Opened-up home interior, location close to downtown and Belle Isle, active community with parties and projects.

Contact: Hubert Jason Hill, Historic Detroit Realty, 313-818-1701.