Historic, Barn, Garage, Fireplace
1916 Independence Bungalow with Library Nook, Fireplace, and Barn — $125,000
6
out of 10
HousesUnder150K Score
Property Merit 50% · Condition 25% · Price/Sq Ft 15% · Market 10%
| Category | Wt. | Score | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property Merit | 50% | 7 | 1916 bungalow, library nook, fireplace, garage/barn, flowering garden, character details throughout |
| Condition | 25% | 6 | "Lovingly restored" with no system dates; bathroom praised but no roof/HVAC specifics |
| Price / Sq Ft | 15% | 7 | $103/sqft vs $117 zip median — ~12% below; thin 6-comp data, directional signal |
| Price vs. Market | 5% | 6 | $125K vs $177K median — 29% below; active market of 100 sales validates zip median |
| Market Conditions | 5% | 5 | DOM 25 days, 99.8% sale-to-list — competitive balanced market; 34.7% price drops a mild positive |
The garage is the first thing worth your attention here, and the agent description actually lands it right: the structure looks like it came out of a black and white film. Old wood, probably original, the kind of thing that gets torn down elsewhere and mourned. At 1733 S Crescent, it's still standing.
The house itself was built in 1916 and runs 1,215 square feet across two stories. Two bedrooms upstairs, one bathroom, a fireplace, and a dedicated library nook. That last detail is the one that tells you what kind of house this is. Someone at some point decided that a small room for books was worth the square footage, and that decision held for over a hundred years. The bathroom gets singled out in the listing as a high point, though no specifics on when it was redone. Same goes for the rest of the systems: the listing describes the house as lovingly restored, which may be true, but there are no dates on the roof, HVAC, or mechanicals. That's the thing to dig into before you move forward.
Out back there's a garden with flowering plants, described as dense enough that the city disappears a little. That could be the backyard of a place you actually want to spend time in, or it could be work, depending on what's been planted and how long it's been growing. Either way, it's there.
The price is $125,000. The zip code median sale price runs around $177,000, which puts this about 29% below where the market is actually clearing. At $103 per square foot, it's also below the zip median of $117. That gap exists for a reason, and the reason is likely the missing system history. But if the inspection comes back clean, or even mostly clean, this is a 109-year-old bungalow with a library and a barn in an active market, priced well under what the neighborhood is selling for. The bones of a genuinely unusual house at a price that leaves room to deal with whatever the inspection turns up.
