Akron real estate
Avery Kolich, REALTOR® The Penney Group
Brokered by
eXp Realty, LLC
Akron is where I am based and where most of my work is. The housing runs from pre-war Craftsman to post-war ranch, often on the same street.
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The houses in Akron
Akron grew up around rubber, and the rubber companies built neighborhoods as well as factories. Goodyear Heights takes its name from the tire company and is largely colonials and ranches. Firestone Park was laid out with tree-lined boulevards curving around a central park.
Merriman Hills is where the rubber executives built, which is why it is still sometimes called Rubber Baron Heights. Most of those houses date from between 1911 and 1930, in Tudor, Georgian, Colonial and Spanish Revival. Stan Hywet Hall, built for Goodyear’s F. A. Seiberling, is the one everybody knows.
Highland Square is mostly Craftsman houses and 1920s apartment buildings, and it is one of the few genuinely walkable parts of the city. Merriman Valley was part of Northampton Township until Akron annexed it in the 1980s, so the housing there runs newer than the rest of town.
What that means in practice: two Akron houses a mile apart can be sixty years apart in age, and the inspection, the insurance and the pool of buyers are different for each. Pricing one off the other is the most common mistake I see.
Closings
I have not closed in Akron yet, and I would rather say that than imply otherwise. I work here, I know the streets and the housing, and the team around me has decades of closings across this side of the county. My own closings so far are in Barberton, Copley, Cuyahoga Falls, Fairlawn and Maple Heights, and they are listed in full on the main page with which side I represented on each one. If you would rather work with someone who has sold on your street this year, that is a fair thing to want and I will tell you who to call.
Avery Kolich
Common questions
What is the housing stock like in Akron? Mixed, and more mixed than most cities this size. There is a large pre-war core of Craftsman and Colonial houses, company-built neighborhoods from the rubber era, post-war ranches, and newer building out toward the valley. The age of the house drives almost everything else about the sale.
Which parts of Akron do you work in? All of it. Highland Square, West Akron, Merriman Valley, Goodyear Heights, Firestone Park, Ellet, Kenmore and the rest. I will tell you honestly when a street is one I do not know well.
Is buying an older Akron house a problem? Not a problem, but a different set of questions. On a house of that age I want the inspector to look hard at the electrical service, the plumbing material, the roof and the foundation. None of those is automatically a reason to walk. They are reasons to know the number before you commit.
