PHOTO BY BOB ROCHE
Above, a large house sits on Lynn Shore Drive. Right, a little house on Glenwood Road.
By THOMAS GRILLO
LYNN — Are you in the “bigger is better” camp or are you more comfortable with “less is more?”
The Item searched city records and found the city’s smallest and largest single-family homes.
If you prefer a mansion, the 9,242-square-foot white Colonial overlooking the ocean at 55 Lynn Shore Drive is perfect.
Built in 1900 as a grand waterfront home, it later became a convent for the Little Sisters of the Poor. Until a few years ago, it housed Catholic Charities. The Boston Archdiocese’s social service agency used the three floors to fulfill its mission offering social service programs for people of all races, religions and ages.
In 2013, Giorgio Dicostanzo, a general contractor, bought the 24-room house for $590,000, according to city records, with plans to restore it to its original glory. The house features 18 bedrooms, 4 full and 7 half-baths on a 22,922-square-foot lot. Its assessed value is $786,600.
Four miles away, on the Peabody border, the two-room bungalow at 21 Glenwood Road offers just one bedroom and one bath. At 384 square feet, the gray shingled home could fit into the living room of the Lynn Shore palace.
Assessed at $176,700, it was purchased in 1980 by Philippe and Deborah Lambert for an undisclosed nominal price, according to the Southern Essex Registry of Deeds.
David Hughes, broker-owner of Century 21 Hughes, said anyone looking for very small or very large homes are niche buyers with very specific requirements.
The average home is 1,500 square feet, he said. If buyers want smaller, they typically choose a 1,000-square-foot house. For bigger residences, they top out at 3,000 square feet.
“It takes a special buyer for a house as large as the one on Lynn Shore Drive,” he said. “The buyer of a very small home, like the one on Glenwood, is a lifestyle choice where they don’t want to have a big mortgage on a bigger house.”
Eileen Spencer, an agent at Annmarie Jonah Realtors, said the majority of people seeking homes in Lynn are first time home buyers and are not looking for houses in extreme sizes. Typically, these buyers are seeking three bedrooms, 1.5 baths in a 1,500-square-foot home. Buyers who are trading up prefer something a little larger at about 2,500 square feet, she said.
“There’s been a lot of attention paid to these tiny homes on television shows,” she said. “But those are not popular in this part of the country, certainly not in Lynn.”
Despite its “bigger is better” reputation and seemingly endless supply of McMansions, the U.S. does not have the largest average house size, according to Love Abode. That honor goes to Australia where the average house is 2,500, the U.S. is second at about 2,100 square feet while China has the smallest, at just 500 square feet.
Thomas Grillo can be reached at [email protected].
