Selling the family Shore house | Real Estate Newsletter
And homeowners’ pipeline nightmare.
The cottage on Asbury Avenue in Ocean City has been in the Smith family for seven decades. Now, it’s most likely at the end of its life.
The 957-square-foot home two blocks from the beach is under contract with a developer for $1.4 million. And the family knows that the buyer will probably tear it down.
That’s what happens down the Shore. The cottage sits on a large lot ripe for development and surrounded by larger neighbors.
Keep scrolling for that story and more in this week’s edition:
Dealing with disruption: Learn what life is like for homeowners in a Bucks County neighborhood where a pipeline leaked jet fuel into wells.
Up and down: Find out how the luxury home market has changed in Philly and Delaware County.
A winning bid: Follow this Philly couple’s home-buying journey, which ended in the purchase of “the most child-unfriendly home.”
Personal sanctuary: Peek inside a Spring Garden church that’s been converted into apartments.
📮What type of nonresidential building would you want to live in if it were converted into a home? Maybe you even have a specific building in mind. Let me know.
— Michaelle Bond
P.S. The newsletter will be taking a break for Thanksgiving. So I’ll see you bright and early in your inbox the following Thursday, Dec. 4.
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Norman and Elizabeth Smith bought the two-bedroom, one-bathroom cottage in 1956 for $13,500. Generations of Smiths spent summers crammed into every corner of the home.
And they watched over the years as small cottages like theirs were demolished and replaced with larger homes.
After Norman and Elizabeth died, one of their sons moved in. But when he died in September, the family decided to sell the property that’s unique in the neighborhood for its small house and grass-covered yard.
The home was listed for sale at the end of October. The family immediately received a bunch of offers, mostly from developers. Now the property is under contract with a developer for $1.4 million.
My colleagues wrote last year about the owners of tiny Shore homes who refuse to sell their million-dollar properties.
But that’s not the usual choice. Take a look inside the Smith’s Shore cottage before it’s gone.
“We will never drink the water in this house again,” a Bucks County homeowner said.
Kristine Wojnovich and her husband don’t bathe in their home either. That’s because they get their water from a well, and that well was one of six that a pipeline leak contaminated with jet fuel.
The leak has disrupted life in a quiet, suburban neighborhood, which happens to have a 14-inch-wide pipeline running underneath it that carries jet fuel, diesel, or gasoline from Delaware County to Newark, N.J.
State inspectors discovered the leak in January. But Wojnovich told my colleague that she first knew something was wrong with the water coming from her well in 2023.
Many residents of the neighborhood won’t drink or cook with their water. They watch as neighbors put their houses up for sale.
Keep reading to learn more details about the leak and what life is like now for the people who live in the neighborhood.
The latest news to pay attention to
In Philly and Delaware County, listings and sales of luxury homes are down from last year, but prices are up.
This couple bought “the most child-unfriendly home” in an East Falls cul-de-sac.
The Philadelphia Housing Authority plans to lay off almost 300 workers in 2026.
A judge got to the bottom of who is to blame for how construction of Philadelphia’s largest hotel went “off the rails.”
The College of Physicians and the Mütter Museum will undergo a $27 million expansion and renovation.
In an era of dying malls, here’s how Philly-area outlets survive and sometimes thrive.
A former Kennett Square dairy farm is getting a $6 million makeover to become a wedding venue.
House of the week: For $319,000 in Bella Vista, a trinity down a red-brick path.
Luxe listing: For $2.7 million, this Wildwood Crest home comes with 10 bedrooms, a pool, and 127 years of Jersey Shore history.
The four women in their 20s all separately found Christ Reformed Church on Facebook. But they didn’t come to worship. They wanted to live there.
The Romanesque-style brownstone structure was built in 1860 as a church, but now it’s an apartment building with 17 multilevel units.
Corwynne Peterson, Riley Sperger, Ashlee Propst, and Magdalena Becker live in one of those units. They moved in at different times over the last 2½ years.
Their four-level apartment includes soaring ceilings, stained glass, columns, and ornate carvings.
The women throw parties in the home and screen movies on the dome of what used to be the church’s sanctuary. They call the sanctuary’s raised platform “the stage” and have furnished it with a dining table, chairs, and a rug.
Peek inside their unique Spring Garden apartment.
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Enjoy the rest of your week and your Thanksgiving. We’ll meet back here on Dec. 4.
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