Are you a fan of living a more downtown lifestyle? Well if that’s the case, then Downtown Norman definitely has something to offer you. If you don’t know me yet, my name is Marcie Billen. I am a real estate agent here in Norman, Oklahoma with Keller Williams Mulinix and Ruya Team Realty. Today I want to show you a little bit about the houses in downtown Norman and what it may be like for you to live there.
You may have seen one of my other posts about downtown Norman, and if not, you may want to check out these: Downtown Norman – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. These are about downtown Norman. So let’s give you an overview of what downtown Norman looks like, especially in terms of housing.
Downtown Norman includes Old Downtown. For us, it starts at around Flood Street, which is where Sprouts is, which is one of our grocery stores that we really like. It goes all the way to about 12th, but really ends before that. Downtown Norman is not technically one neighborhood, so the three areas that I’m covering here are Original Townsite, First Courthouse, and then Kunkels. Basically, I’m trying to show you the houses that you could live in so that you could walk to downtown and enjoy those amenities.
So that vicinity is roughly from Acres to the north, Flood to the west, Reed to the east, and then the University of Oklahoma to the south. Homes in this area really do vary greatly with age. Some of the oldest houses that I see, are built in 1910. Oklahoma you know, became a state in 1907. Norman was founded in 1889, so that gives you a little bit of idea of what we’re working with here. 1910 usually, is about the oldest house that I see; the newest houses could be present day, because some of these houses had to be torn down because they were in such disrepair, and with like trees growing out of them and things like that.
You will find some newer houses in this area as well. These houses can be a lot more affordable than some of the historic district houses. I did cover Chautauqua Historic District in another video. If you missed that, you want to check that out; it’s right here. You will really find some charmers in this area though. For instance, one day I was showing a house on Peters in Norman and the neighbor told us that the house was actually a Sears and Roebuck house, meaning that it came from a kit. Like actually delivered on a covered wagon and the owners put it together right there! You’ll find a lot of houses like that in Norman.
My favorite streets to drive and look at the houses are Dawes, Ponca, Tonhawa and also Peters. In this area of Norman, you can expect to pay, on average, around $180,000 for a house. However, all these houses are so different, so some of the houses are super tiny like 700 square feet, all the way up to a 4,000 square foot house. It totally just depends, but when you’re thinking about the average price point in Norman, which is around $220,000 for a house, it may be a good deal for you. I’ve seen people buy houses in this area for as little as $90,000 – $100,000 and all the way up to $400,00 – $500,000. The level of maintenance and upkeep really varies greatly too, just because of the age of the houses and what the past owners may have done.
A lot of these houses are going to be on a crawl space instead of a slab. Some of these houses do have basements, sometimes you’ll find plumbing problems, electrical problems, but it just totally depends on the house itself and how it’s been taken care of. Also, some of these houses in this area don’t just come with one residence. Some homes will actually have two residences, all the way up to maybe four; again, just depending on the house itself and what it was used for in the past. Some houses will have a little house back behind it, or maybe just a duplex in itself, and that can be used of course, for a residence, or an office, or something like that.
Around this area, you’ll find three historic districts. Like I said, Chautauqua is one of them, and there’s two others. One is Southridge and one is Class and Miller. The home prices definitely vary a lot, and those houses do tend to be a lot bigger.
Do you need more info on Norman? Feel free to email, call or send me a text and I’d be happy to answer your questions!
