And what a neighborhood it is! Take a look at the photos I took a few months back. I also have done a panorama of the other properties in the block. This is one of the two best blocks on Jones Street which just happens to be the most desirable street address in Historic Savannah. Currently several of these houses are worth in the multiple millions of dollars. One across the street from 15 West Jones is for sale at around $2.8 million. This block was actually written up in the Georgia Historical Society Quarterly Journal back in the 1940s by one of the inhabitants at that time across the street. The house she lived in on this block has a side garden which is a rare case today in that the original parterre garden plan is known from a 1940s sketch done by Claremont Lee, a Savannah born Landscape Architect who worked here and was just getting started at that time.

Yes this property (above) needs some work. LOTS of work in fact. And no, this is not my listing but I have broken my rule that I should not write about specific properties for sale - again. I can't help myself! I'd hate to see someone I don't know get it. Please call me if you want more information or would like to take the plunge. At 5 and 1/2 thousand square feet, it is very cheap for that area.

The history briefly is that the house, originally built as a single family, has been a seven plex apartment building for the past many, many, years. Lots of the houses in this area were chopped up after the turn of the century to provide housing for the railroad workers who worked at the Roundhouse complex (now a museum) not too many blocks to the west, so it is not surprising really. Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House is in the next block west.

In April of 2005, 15 West Jones was sold for $607,500. In July, 2005 that person put it up for sale at $875,000. It went under contract twice and in December sold for $850,000, $10,000 over the asking price at the time. Quite a nice flip I'd say, if you're into that kind of thing. But the person who bought it lost it. I'm not really sure what happened exactly but the bank got stuck with it and had it listed at $850,000 and then at $756,000. Now they are asking $656,500 and who knows how much they might take!

This property is a real deal. If the times were different, it NEVER would have stayed on the market this long. But buyer beware - this place could be quite an expensive project!!

Until Next Week

Ron Melander