My first house

A week ago, when I posted about my house in a different timeline, I looked up my first house on the county auditor site.  I bought it on April 28th, 1992, and sold it on April 28th, 1998.  Owning it for exactly six years is notable, so an anniversary post seemed like a good idea.

The photo on the left is when I bought it, while the other photo is from 2023 when the house was last listed for sale.  While I owned it, I removed the bushes next to the front door, and painted the house a darker brown than it is today.  I like their lighter brown, but they should have painted the downspout to match.  A drain pipe is not an architectural feature to highlight. 

That tree is taking forever to grow.

This isn’t entirely about what they or I did to the house, but about how much it bought and sold for.

• 1976     $30,100
• 1983     $64,700
• 1986     $69,000
• 1992     $85,000
• 1998     $101,500
• 2001     $113,500
• 2013     $100,000
• 2023     $200,000

When I bought the house in 1992, it was in good repair, but some features were dated.  The sellers had done minor renovations like painting and new tile in the kitchen.  I did about the same.  By 2023, the bathrooms had been renovated, hardwood had been refinished and the attic was improved.

By 1983, the house price had more than doubled in seven years.  There is no evidence that much had been done to the house.

For the fifteen years after that, until I sold, the value improved steadily.  The guy I sold to was a teacher at University School in Hunting Valley.  He must have done some work to get $12k more in three years. 

The living room has grasscloth wallpaper that looked like it would be a bitch to strip.  Maybe he did that.  The attic was worse, with something like tissue paper on the walls.  One bedroom had red plaid wall paper.  Maybe he bought a steamer.

I don’t know what happened after that.  When he sold in 2001, the next guy lost $13k in twelve years.  No structural or significant changes have been made since I owned it, so the house could not have had a bunch of unfinished projects.

The price of the house doubled from 2013 to 2023.  The market accounts for some of that, but by 2023, the house looked like it’s best self.

The house was built in 1930, so is almost a hundred years old.  I’m surprised and encouraged by what hasn’t changed.  None of the natural wood has been painted, and there is a lot of it.  The kitchen cabinets look original.  Even the half-assed deck I built thirty years ago is still there.  On the other hand, the garage was a horror show when I owned it, and nobody has bothered to replace it.

When I lived in that house, it was 60 years old.  I felt like a caretaker as much as an owner.  The house was done when it was built, so systems were updated, but no structural changes could or should be done.

My current house is 70 years old this year.  It was built as a work-in-progress and has had two major additions.  It is getting close to being it’s best self.