The price of the fire station home is MUCH higher than just a few years ago—have housing prices really risen that much that quickly?
Sale prices have increased rapidly since COVID in Kirkland, as well as in most other areas, but no where near as much as the difference between the 2018 sale price and 2021 list price.
In 2018, the city sold the property as “fire station 24”. At the time of the 2018 sale, the property probably looked more like a fire station and less like a home, contributing to a much lower sale price. It’s also unclear how much the house will sell for in 2021. If the list price is unrealistic, the home may sell for far less than the list or not sell at all.
My dentist bought one of our old 1900 fire stations and turned it into his office. It’s awesome. It still has the pole and everything.
And years ago another couple bought the old Catholic Church. It’s small for a church but gothic architecture. It’s amazing what they’ve done to it. They shopped ebay and brought in art from all over the world to fill it.
I’m always surprised when I see lots described in square feet instead of acres. I think if ours - a 110 year old house in the middle of the city - as small and we have almost 20,000 SF. Though personally I don’t care if I have a yard at all. I hate yard work
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That’s really cool. But other than the front elevation, it really does look like a regular home. If I just saw the interior photos, I wouldn’t have guessed.
I bet whoever buys it has an RV-they could easily park it in the garage, so that would be a big draw. I imagine that some neighborhoods might have restrictions against parking RVs in the driveway or in front of the house for long periods at a time, so I could totally see this working for a family who travels in the summers in their RV.
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Good point about the RV. And I think it is a cool re-fit of the old fire station, but I could not live in that red, black, white, gray. I really don’t like red very much and don’t have anything much red in my house except a few decorations at Christmas. Our front door is a dark red, too. But that former firehouse is a blaring emergency red. Not restful.
I don’t shop at Target because of how much red is in the store. Both times I’ve gone in there I just wanted to get out and I ended up buying nothing. I no longer bother trying.
I have very little red in my house too - just a shirt or two for when we’re supposed to wear red at school for whatever cause is going on. I never wear those shirts otherwise. I bought a pair of red shorts once - no idea what caused me to do that. They’re as good as new. I really need to donate them in case someone else loves the color.
I’m odd in that gray in houses or other buildings turns me completely off too. I know it’s the new fad, but all I see is an old Communist era institution rather than a house/business. I’m hoping that fad is gone before we want to buy a condo - or that we can find one that hasn’t been updated and save money as well as having something I prefer.
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The prices did go up, but not that much. Definitely did not triple. However, the person who bought the old firehouse from the city on the cheap did an extensive (and permitted, I checked) remodel to turn the interior into a house.
Most of the lots in my neighborhood are 7000-10,000 square feet, no one uses acres except for some reason the building department. I’ve got just about as much yard as I can deal with. The house has five bedrooms (2 in the attic), and since putting on an addition a great kitchen and 2 full baths and 2 half baths. You could probably put an additional full bath in the attic, but that’s a project for a future homeowner. We can walk to the commuter rail, and to shops and restaurants. It’s 1920s suburbia and I love it.
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Our yard is 7700 sq feet. But yard size is not discussed much, I just know it is 70x110 (bigger than the teeniest yards) … so almost .2 acre 
Of course our 1920s suburbia-ish lot in upstate NY was 50x100, so it was a step up for us.
We live on more than an acre! 
This is a “downsize” from a horse acre. Why a downsize? Because instead of a flat yard with grass we have impassable swamp for a backyard! Lol. Love the low maintenance aspect of it.
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Most homes in our state are listing SQ FT for lot size and range from 1000 to 10,000+! Most in our neighborhood are 5000-8500 sq ft lots including the house (which on many lots take up a very big chunk of the lot).
I would love love love to find an old unique house to buy and fix up. A church would be ideal. Unfortunately most of them are in downtown areas, which is not where I’d want to live.
I think maybe they start using acres when it gets to 1/4 acre or more and use square feet under that?
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It’s a convention – if >= 0.25 acres, list in acres; and if <0.25 acres, list in sqft. Redfin, realtor.com, Zillow, and similar all try to use this convention. However, sometimes realtors enter the information wrong in the MLS and mix up acres and sqrt. An example is at https://www.redfin.com/CA/Oxnard/3619-Creekside-Ln-93036/home/4734781 . The listed 8,242 acre lot (13 square miles) should stand out in the suburban neighborhood.
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We live on 23+ acres which is a downsize from 72. We don’t mow often. Our ponies do that for us - even our front yard. The time or two per year when I mow the fields I tend to enjoy it. Our front yard probably gets mowed once a month or so to even it up from the ponies - and knock down weeds they don’t eat.
One of the acres is a pond. I love the peacefulness and beauty it provides.
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Really? Hmmm. Go figure. 
Huh? It’s not enough data? 
https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/09/tech/zillow-ibuying-home-zestimate/index.html
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Zillow will sell about 2,000 homes in its flipping inventory in bulk to a co that owns and rents out single family homes. Pretium Partners LLC. Let me guess… most homes will be rented as is, no major updates.
We looked at a couple houses today. (We are in the search for a new home but have a narrow search of where and what we want so it may take some time to find “the one”).
One house was fairly nice inside. It was built in 1958 so had some MCM vibe - which I like. SWEEPING front window and all windows quite large, many overlooking the backyard which is waterfront (pretty river that runs through town). Not one window could be opened! (Minus a set of sliding glass doors out to the back yard off the family room) They were all probably original and were just large sheets of glass with no way to open at all. That’s a big no for this fresh air person! Beautiful but I also had to question the efficiency of them being a single sheet of glass, likely from the late 50’s AND in Ohio where we def have winter!!!
The other house we looked at had a wonderful yard but the house was super choppy, old, “old tyme “ as I call it - and rustic looking. Old NOT in a good way. BUT THAT YARD, RIVER VIEW AND DECK/POOL!
But the funniest thing was when we turned a corner to see an open laundry space (odd) and there was a huge cage with 2 huge rabbits in it!). A little freaky!!
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Windows can be changed. We’ve replaced many windows in our current place. What can’t be changed is the location and the views! 
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We learn to live with (or change) pretty much anything for location. It’s our #1 consideration when searching for a place.
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