Real Estate Today: Unusual JP properties for sale

(Courtesy Photo) The former women’s nursing home at 72 Robinwood Ave. was built in 1880. One of the condo units is currently on sale for $439,000.

While the Jamaica Plain real estate market is mostly known for apartments in multiple-family houses and more luxurious single-family homes, some local real estate agents told the Gazette about some more unique properties around the neighborhood.

“JP has fewer cookie-cutter properties than other nearby markets” like Southie, Somerville, Cambridge or Roslindale, independent agent B.J. Ray told the Gazette.

“I am drawn to older properties, older than 1880,) so I chose a few of those,” Karen McCormack, owner of McCormack & Scanlan Real Estate, said.

His choices for most interesting recent or upcoming listing in JP included 39 Rosemary St., a newly-constructed single-family house.

Single-family homes are already rare by comparison in JP, and factoring in the fact that it’s new construction is “especially unique,” Ray said.

Out of 304 total properties sold since July, only 20 were built after 2000, and only six were built in the last two years. That makes brand-new single-family homes 0.25 percent of the JP market.

The Rosemary Street property, a four-bedroom, is not yet on the market.

Another of Ray’s top picks was 45 Peter Parley Road, a historic house built by the Farber family—of the Dana-Faber Cancer Institute—with much of its original detail intact. It sold at the end of July.

Ray’s last pick was 952 Centre St. Unlike 45 Peter Parley, it’s an older home that has been completely renovated, Ray said. Its location is also “spectacular,” he said, as the Arnold Arboretum shares the property line. It’s currently under agreement and had been listed at $1.25 million.

“It’s gorgeous. It was a former carriage house and while not technically a Victorian, it has many Victorian details,” Ray said.

McCormack’s choice picks were comprised mostly of century-old homes, though she also mentioned a few new homes and renovations.

The oldest home on her list was condo at 35 Green St., a house built in 1841. The Sumner Hill unit, which listed at $369,000 and sold two months later for $375,000, is a two-bedroom, 936-square-foot condo that was recently renovated. It has the original fireplace mantels and wood floors as well as custom closets.

A newer-construction listing highlighted by McCormack was a corner-unit loft at 83-85 Brookside Ave. with 12-foot ceilings and modern interiors. It sold for $350,000, from a $367,000 list price, after three months on the market.

McCormark also pointed out a recent renovation at 5 Dresden St. The home, built in 1900, now has custom closets, a marble-backsplashed kitchen and radiant baseboard heat as well as an exposed brick chimney and skylights. The 1,200-square-foot unit sold for $444,000, from a $439,000 list price, after a mere four days on the market.

The grandest of McCormark’s picks was a unit at 72 Robinwood Ave. The two-bedroom, 1,040-square-foot unit is part of an 1880 structure with a deck overlooking “lush and rolling gardens” on 20,000 square feet of land, the unit’s info sheet boasts. The former women’s nursing home was converted to condos in 1986 and is on the market for $439,000.

“It is a very grand home with much of the original detail still in place,” McCormark said.

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