Historic
1935 Rochester Cape Cod, Updated Throughout, Priced 35% Below Median — $149,900
7
out of 10
HousesUnder150K Score
Property Merit 50% · Condition 25% · Price/Sq Ft 15% · Market 10%
| Category | Wt. | Score | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property Merit | 50% | 8 | 1935 Cape Cod, hardwood throughout, skylight, 3rd room, deck, gazebo, fenced yard |
| Condition | 25% | 8 | Move-in ready; windows, kitchen appliances, vanity, HWT, electrical panel all updated |
| Price / Sq Ft | 15% | 7 | Listing $114/sqft vs zip median $173/sqft — 34% below; thin 8-comp data, directional |
| Price vs. Market | 5% | 8 | $149,900 vs $229,901 zip median — 35% below; strong signal even with thin data |
| Market Conditions | 5% | 5 | DOM 8 days, sale-to-list 123.1% — extreme seller's market; floor applied at 5 |
The price is the first thing worth understanding here. The zip median is $229,901. This house is listed at $149,900, which is $80,000 below that. At $114 per square foot against a neighborhood median of $173, it is priced like a project even though it has already been worked on. Someone updated the windows to Thermopane, replaced the hot water tank, redid the kitchen countertops and put in new appliances, swapped the vanity and toilets in the bath, and upgraded the electrical panel. The heavy lifting is done.
The house itself is a 1935 Cape Cod, vinyl sided, 1,320 square feet across two proper bedrooms plus a third room with a skylight that works as a home office or a guest room depending on what you need. Hardwood floors run throughout. The place has been freshly painted. It reads clean and functional, not a gut job or a patch job.
Out back there is a deck with a new gazebo for shade, a fenced yard described as private. For a house this size in a city neighborhood, that kind of outdoor setup adds something real. A family could use it. Someone working from home could use that skylight room. The footprint is modest but the layout is doing work.
The market context matters here. Rochester is moving fast right now, and this specific property had delayed negotiations scheduled, which means the sellers were expecting multiple offers. Sale-to-list ratios in this market are running around 123 percent, meaning houses are routinely going for well over ask. At $149,900, this one was priced to generate exactly that kind of competition.
The downside is that with only eight comparable sales, the pricing data is directional rather than airtight. You can see the gap between this price and the median, but the comp pool is thin enough that you should verify before leaning too hard on the number.
What the price makes possible is a move into a maintained, updated 1935 Cape Cod in Rochester for well under what the neighborhood is otherwise trading at. The bones are old in the best sense, the updates are recent, and the gap between this ask and market median is wide enough to matter.
