By Carole Hawkins, [email protected]
Look down the rows of homes lining Springfield’s boulevards and you’ll see the kind of fairy-tale architecture that leaves one expecting Mary Poppins to come floating over the rooftops.
But during the Great Recession, Jacksonville’s oldest neighborhood went into a death spiral.
Investors who had beautifully rehabbed Queen Anne and Victorian homes with full-length, and sometimes, wrap-around porches, were trying to sell them.
But nothing was selling.
Sleeping Beauty had entered a deep slumber. Recently, she awoke.
Dozens of Realtors joined carpools to tour 15 for-sale homes in the historic neighborhood last month.
Sponsored by the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors’ Historic Area Council, the caravan was the first the council had conducted in Springfield since the group re-formed four years ago.
“We’re seeing buyers buying here,” council chairman Jon Singleton said. “Homes are moving off the MLS. And for decent prices — holy cow.”
Home sales in historic Springfield started picking up in early 2015, said Catherine Tappouni of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Network Realty, an agent who hosted lunch for the caravan at her listing on Silver Street.
“The market here has been very active,” she said. “People who bought before the downturn are looking to upgrade. And there are renters in the neighborhood who are now looking to buy.”
According to Zillow, during the first half of 2015 only two homes in the historic district sold for above $200,000. The second half, there were 13.
Springfield’s historic district runs north to south from 1st to 12th streets and east to west from Boulevard to Ionia streets.
The southwest part of the district has large Victorian and Queen Anne homes. It’s where the doctors and lawyers lived at the turn of the 20th Century.
In the northeast area there are smaller Craftsman-style homes. They are close to train tracks and former manufacturing plants. It’s where the workforce lived.
The rising historic neighborhood can be tricky for a Realtor to navigate, Singleton said. There are $10-per-square-foot homes — boarded and with paint peeling — on the same block as $100-per-square-foot homes, already rehabbed.
“As a buyer, you need to understand what the difference is,” he said.
Singleton, who lives in San Marco and works out of Watson Realty’s Avondale office, is a veteran of Jacksonville’s historic neighborhoods. As he drove through Springfield, he pointed out dozens of homes he’d either listed or helped a buyer to purchase over the years. There were some on the caravan he hadn’t seen before, though.
Walking into one listing on Perry Street, he noticed its dining room had a vaulted ceiling. “This is really great,” he said. “It makes it look like a much larger space.”
A caravan gives Realtors a command of what’s on the market when they are working with buyers.
It gives them a much better idea of what the houses are worth when they work with sellers.
One of the listings on the caravan was Singleton’s— a home on 9th Street priced at $259,000. He hoped to hear what other Realtors thought.
Crissie Cudd of Watson Realty already had an idea of what the home would look like from the MLS photos. But she likes to walk through homes in person also, to see whether the reality matches her expectation.
Photos can’t show how a house fits on a lot or what the parking is like, Cudd said. Also, Springfield is a neighborhood in transition, “so, you want to see what’s next to the house,” she said.
A caravan is a fast way to condense those assessments.
“Instead of the making appointments to visit 15 homes, I can come and knock them out all at once,” Cudd said.
Singleton’s home looked the way she expected it to. “Jon takes good photos,” she said.
There have been other times when she’s been surprised, though.
She recently toured a duplex that was just a half mile from Klutho Park. The listing agent hadn’t mentioned it.
“That’s a great location,” Cudd said.
Sometimes agents miss other things in the listing, Singleton said, like solar panels on the roof or insulated walls.
“That’s like — oh my god, in Springfield,” he said.
When Cudd sees such lapses, she’ll mention it to the listing agent, to improve their chance for a sale.
That kind of collaboration is good, Singleton said. “Everyone benefits when homes are turning over.”
Singleton visited another listing on East 11th Street. The two-bedroom, one-bath craftsman style home has off-street parking and is nicely remodeled for its $134,900 price point.
Singleton liked the workmanship. He’s got a buyer who’s looking for something larger, though.
The listing agent, Thomas Love of Belle Epoque Realty Services, said the same investor is working on anther rehab that’s bigger and will be finished soon.
It’s another advantage of caravan — Realtors can get leads on what’s coming up at other brokerages.
“Otherwise, we don’t’ necessarily intersect with each other much,” Singleton said.
Back on Silver St., Tappouni so far had counted 30 Realtors coming through for lunch. Several had never seen the neighborhood before.
That’s good, because agents who don’t typically sell in Springfield don’t often come there, she said.
With prices rising and inventory tightening, the neighborhood will surely see more of them.