What a difference a couple years have made on the 2200 block of Wilder Street. You may recall, we visited this block in early 2016 and it was in pretty rough shape. The notable feature on the block was a huge vacant lot on the south side which we assumed was entirely composed of City owned land.

But we were wrong! The City owned only three of the eleven vacant properties, with individuals and developers owning the rest. The reason for our visit was a planned development on the block that called for four new homes in place of a vacant spot on the north side, and three new homes in place of three old homes on the south side.

Within a few months, that project got approval from the ZBA, and when we revisited the block last November, we saw that demolition was finished on the south side of the block and construction was just getting started on the north side of the block. We also discovered, to our surprise, a new home under construction from V2 Properties, right in the middle of the large vacant lot we mentioned earlier. We wondered, at the time, whether the construction of eight new homes on the block might spur additional development. And did it ever.

Somehow, an additional six homes are now under construction or recently completed on this block. The V2 home sold a few months back for $380K, and one of the homes in the seven unit development sold for $410K. We haven’t walked through any of these homes, but we’d have to think that the price difference can be explained by the fact that V2 built their home by right, which means it only goes back 35 feet, while the other project went to zoning and goes back a little further. As we’ve shared in the past, a 35′-deep home is perfectly livable, but the 2nd floor gets kinda tight, and a few more feet of depth makes a big difference. All that being said, the fact that homes are selling on this block in the range of $400K is absolutely incredible, when you consider what was (or wasn’t) happening here less than two years ago. And given the current situation, we expect we’ll see even more construction here in the coming years.