Historic, Garage
1892 Charter Oak Home with Workshop Garage at $41 a Square Foot — $65,000
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 | 1892 build, 1582 sqft, 3/2, detached garage with workshop; small-town Iowa |
| Condition | 25% | 6 | Newer roof, gutters, central air named; interior updates vague, no HVAC age given |
| Price / Sq Ft | 15% | 10 | $41/sqft listing vs $82 zip median — ~50% below; 7 comps, directional but striking |
| Price vs. Market | 5% | 8 | $65K vs $135K zip median — ~52% below; thin volume (3 sales/month) |
| Market Conditions | 5% | 5 | DOM 54 vs median 27; sale-to-list 96.6%, price drops 20% — mild buyer signals |
The price is where you start. At $65,000 for 1,582 square feet, you are paying $41 per square foot in a zip code where the median runs around $82. That gap is not a rounding error. It is the kind of spread that makes you look twice, then look again.
The house itself was built in 1892, so it has been standing in Charter Oak for over 130 years. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a detached garage with a workshop attached. The bones are old in the way that old Iowa houses are old: built when people were building to last, before shortcuts were fashionable. Whether the interior shows that age gracefully or roughly is the honest question the listing does not answer. The agent mentions a newer roof, newer gutters, and central air, which covers the expensive stuff you worry about from the outside. Interior updates get described as vague improvements, which is agent language for nothing specific to report. You would want to walk through it with your eyes open.
The workshop is worth mentioning separately. A detached garage with a dedicated workspace is genuinely useful, not just storage with a workbench shoved in a corner. If you do anything with your hands, that matters. If you do not, it is still good covered parking in Iowa winters.
The listing has been sitting about 54 days, which is roughly double the local median. Price drops have hit about 20 percent of comparable listings in the area. None of that means something is wrong with the house specifically, but it does mean you have room to negotiate. The market here is thin, three sales a month thin, so each transaction moves on its own schedule. Conventional financing is accepted, which keeps your options open.
For $65,000, you get a house old enough to have a real character if you look for it, enough space for a family, a workspace most people would have to build from scratch, and a price that leaves money for whatever the interior needs once you walk through and find out.
