Fifty years of houses on one map
West Park’s housing spans roughly half a century, from before World War I to the Vietnam War era, which is why two houses a few blocks apart can sell so differently. The City of Canton’s 2010 neighborhood plan describes:
- large brick houses, then 80 or 90 years old, along parts of 10th, 11th and 12th Streets NW
- big frame Colonial-style houses from the 1930s to the 1950s
- well-built, modest houses from just before and after World War II
- ranch houses from the 1950s and 1960s
The plan counted 249 residential buildings, most of them single-family, plus 10 non-residential ones. Those ranged from small offices to two places the plan singled out as destinations: Taggart’s Ice Cream and the A&W root beer stand. The city’s 2010 workbook adds that only in the 1930s did areas like Ridgewood and parts of West Park begin to set themselves apart by income.
Why big old West Park houses can be hard to sell
Size and age cut both ways here. The city plan noted that many West Park houses run well over 2,000 square feet, with maintenance and utility bills to match, and that those costs showed up in lower sale prices. It also listed the features buyers in newer suburbs expect and older houses lack: small closets, fewer bathrooms, closed-off kitchens and one-car garages.
The plan’s sales data showed a ceiling. Homes in the $100,000 range sat longer or expired, while lower-priced ones sold. Those 2010 numbers are long out of date, but the logic still applies. If your house needs a roof, a furnace and a kitchen, the cost can exceed what the finished house would bring, and an as-is sale may leave you ahead. Our page on selling a house that won’t sell covers the case where a listing has already stalled.
When listing a West Park house makes more sense
Canton’s 2010 plan called West Park one of the city’s premier communities, and a well-kept house here has a real retail market. The city recorded 83% of known properties lived in by their owners and only three abandoned buildings in 2010. Buyers come for tree-lined streets, solid original construction, wood floors and trim, and easy access to downtown, the hospitals and the highways.
If your house is in that condition and you have time, list it. A buyer using the City of Canton’s down payment assistance, up to $7,500 for eligible first-time buyers, needs a single-family house free of major defects at $219,000 or less. A house that clears that bar has a wider pool of buyers than one that doesn’t.
Traffic streets, rentals and estates
Houses on Fulton Road NW and 12th Street NW face the heaviest traffic, and the plan flagged both streets as shaping first impressions of the neighborhood. Houses on the north side of 10th Street NW look across at blocks that have struggled. Those are the addresses where an as-is sale most often makes sense.
We also hear from landlords with one of the neighborhood’s duplexes, and from families settling an estate. If that is you, see selling a rental property or selling an inherited house. For the citywide picture, visit our Canton page, or get a written offer to compare with an agent’s estimate.