Historic, Victorian, Character Home
1904 Oil City Victorian, Cedar Shake Siding, 5 Bedrooms — $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% | 8 | 1904 Victorian, cedar shake, front porch, 5 beds, 2068 sqft — strong physical package |
| Condition | 25% | 5 | No system dates named; "potential" language suggests cosmetic or unknown work ahead |
| Price / Sq Ft | 15% | 7 | Listing $60/sqft vs zip median $65/sqft — roughly 8% below; thin 8-comp base |
| Price vs. Market | 5% | 3 | $125K is ~2.5% above zip median $121,947 — essentially at market |
| Market Conditions | 5% | 8 | Strong buyer's market: 93.6% sale-to-list, 37.8% price drops, 77-day median DOM |
Two thousand square feet of 1904 Victorian for $125,000. That is the headline. Cedar shake siding, a front porch, five bedrooms, and a house that has been standing for 120 years in a city where prices have been sliding. If you are looking for space and you like old houses, this one is worth paying attention to.
The physical package is real. Five bedrooms at this price means a large family can actually spread out, or you can dedicate rooms to other uses and still have plenty left over. At $60 per square foot, you are getting a house of this size at a price that would be hard to replicate if you were building new. Victorian houses from this era tend to have high ceilings, wood trim, and rooms with actual walls and doors — the kind of layout that has come back into favor precisely because people lived differently when this house was built.
The front porch is the kind that was standard in 1904 and rare now. A place to sit in the evening, to watch the street, to have a cup of coffee in the morning. That is a real feature, not a decorative one.
What you need to go in knowing: the agent description uses the word potential, which is typically a signal that work is ahead. No system ages are listed. No mention of the roof, the furnace, or the plumbing. That is the gap between a promising house and a finished one, and in a market where 37.8% of listings have seen price drops and the median sale price is $121,947, you have some room to push on price. The market is moving slowly here — 77-day median days on market — which means the seller is likely watching offers closely.
This house is priced right at the zip median, and given the square footage and the age, that is fair but not a steal. The steel is what you make of it. Get an inspector in who knows old houses, find out what the systems need, and price that work in before you negotiate. There is a lot of house here for the money if the bones hold up.
