TheBurg

24 | theburg | 03.16 A year ago, Jared Blouch packed up his belongings and did something that, until recently, would have seemed decidedly backwards. He sold his house in Mechanicsburg and moved into Harrisburg. He was tired of the commute and traffic into the city each day, he said. So, he found a beautiful, historic house that he also thought was very affordable and started a new way of life that included—egads—walking. "I like that everything is so close, and I don't have to drive far," said Blouch, who purchased on Green Street. "I can get everything I want right there." Blouch became so enamored with his new neighborhood that he quickly became an activist for it, joining the board of Friends of Midtown and serving as president of the Olde Uptown Neighborhood Association. Blouch's introduction to Midtown Harrisburg could hardly be more different than that experienced by Ray Davis, who moved there in 1986. "I bought my house on Green Street, and I drove my mother by and she looked at me, and she looked back at the house and said 'are you serious?'" he said. Davis, a familiar licensed real estate agent in central PA, particularly in Harrisburg, laughed as he recalled the memory. "She had no experience with city living," he said. "So, she put her hand on my knee and said, 'Is it safe?'" In those three decades in Harrisburg, Davis has seen many changes—from the transition of the plasma center on Reily Street to the current Midtown Cinema; from rows of empty buildings to the recent surge of new businesses in Midtown. "We didn't have anything—anything!" he stressed. "It was so different than it is now." Today, Midtown residents have numerous restaurants, nightspots and even a brewery among a long list of amenities just a short stroll away. In part, that's what may be driving new interest in living in the heart of the city, said Davis. "Comparing 2011 to 2015, there were literally twice as many sales," he said. In 2011, the data (price range of $50,000 to $250,000) showed that 49 houses were sold in the 17102 zip code, which includes North Street to Maclay Street and Front Street to N. 7th Street. In 2015, the same zip code totaled 99 units sold. Even more encouraging, the average time on the market for those 99 units was 87 days, just below the average of 90 days in the surrounding suburbs. FArINg better Wendell Hoover, Harrisburg's other go-to agent, looked past the borders of the 17102 zip code to find that the dips and peaks of the average sales price over a six-year period told the same story. Including data from downtown, Midtown and Uptown, HoUse HUnTers HarrisBUrG As amenities, confidence grow, so does interest in living in the city. by AShLeIgh PoLLArt

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