A village inside the city
Lathrop works like a small village set inside Canton, with clear edges on every side. The City of Canton’s 2010 plan for the neighborhood describes railroad tracks along much of the south edge, Route 43 to the east, US 30 to the north and I-77 to the west. Inside that ring are blocks of houses, a school, a church, a branch of Nimishillen Creek and a popular park, with downtown a few blocks north.
Allen Avenue SE, Bernard Place SE and 14th Street SE carry most of the local traffic. Market Avenue South keeps only a few buildings from the business strip that once lined it. In 2010 the city listed the Southeast Church of Christ, the Paralee Watkins Compton Learning Center and a handful of commercial buildings among the non-residential properties.
One- and two-story frame houses, old and new
Most Lathrop houses are one- and two-story frame homes of about 1,150 square feet. The 2010 plan counted 77 older houses that go back to the neighborhood’s start about a century ago, and more than 50 built in the two decades before 2010. Many of the newer ones came through Habitat for Humanity, which the plan credits with about four dozen owners in the area.
That mix matters when you sell. A newer frame house in good shape has a reasonable chance with a retail buyer, and if yours is one, we’ll tell you so. The older houses are where repairs pile up. The plan noted that many of them needed repairs and modernizing, and it counted three outbuildings that were collapsing.
Family-owned homes and heirs
Lathrop’s stability comes from long-term owners, and many houses here were handed down rather than bought. The city found a homeowner share of 71% among known properties in 2010 and called the population “remarkably stable.”
When a house passes through a family, selling it often means dealing with probate, several heirs or a deed that was never updated. Before you sign anything, find out whose name is on the deed. These pages cover the steps:
- Selling an inherited house
- Stark County Probate Court and real estate
- When heirs disagree about selling
We can buy a house while the estate is still being settled, once the person signing has the legal authority to sell.
Why Lathrop prices are hard to pin down
Very few Lathrop houses sell on the open market, so there are not many recent sales to price from. In the six months the city studied, one house sold: a 1995 home, sold as a foreclosure for $15,900 after just over three months listed. The only other listing, a house from 1896 asking $4,500, came off the market after 780 days.
Canton values have changed a great deal since 2010, so those numbers are not a guide to what your house is worth today. They do show why a Lathrop listing can be slow. An agent has little nearby data, and buyers have few comparables to justify a loan. A written offer from us is one more number to weigh, and we explain how we arrived at it. See the Canton city page for more on how we work in Stark County, or request your offer here.