Tucked away on an ordinary residential street in Cherry Hill, a cluster of 10 matching cottages strung together with twinkle lights offers a surprisingly quaint reprieve from the bustle of the city. Juxtaposed with gleaming skyscrapers visible from the shared patio, Bungalow Court feels like the uncannily idyllic town in Tim Burton’s Big Fish: verging on twee, and a little too good to be true.

Granted, that’s probably the modern Seattle real estate market talking. Sure, this nano neighborhood has plenty of unique qualities—like uncommonly communal neighbors, who all store their things in one bungalow’s basement, for example. But the development’s real appeal becomes most apparent when you compare it with other housing. Unlike apartments, the standalone units have no shared walls. They’re roomier than tiny homes, but tinier than most anything else.

Even the Multiple Listing Service can’t decide what, exactly, to call these things. Realtor Ellen Hastings says she listed this pastel pink charmer, which she unhesitatingly calls the “cutest listing of my career,” as both a house and a condo.

At a little under 600 square feet, with a small back porch, a patch for gardening, and a bathroom you can actually turn around in, Goldilocks might say it’s just right.

But you don’t have to be a presumptuous fairy-tale character to miss Seattle housing’s “missing middle”—basically, everything between a house and a large apartment complex. Finding anything resembling a single-family home in Seattle for under $500,000 is vanishingly rare: A Zillow search spits out around two dozen results, most of which are houseboats.

In contrast with most of its floating counterparts, this cottage offers virtually all the amenities of a full-size home. The living room features high ceilings, a wood-burning fireplace, and a full wall of shelving for displaying books and knick-knacks. The kitchen has space for a small dining table, and the bathroom for a full-size bath.

A charming rolling ladder leads to a small loft space, ideal for guests. Perhaps most thrillingly for folks used to getting their 564 square feet in a very different format? There are windows facing in every direction (bring on the plants).

Invented in Pasadena in the early 1900s, multifamily housing centered around a courtyard feels distinctly Southern California. This community, according to the Seattle Historical Society, is a “rare surviving example” of Seattle’s take on the trend; and even as House Bill 1110 aims to proliferate -plexes, bungalow courts like this one probably won’t overtake the tightly packed townhouse anytime soon.

It’s exceptionally serendipitous, then, that this home’s next-door neighbor—an adorably renovated maroon number—is also on the market. Too good to be true, even. And yet.

Listing Fast Facts

341 16th Avenue Unit C, Seattle, WA 98122
Size: 564 square feet, 1 bedroom, 1 bathrooms
List Price: $459,000
List Date: 9/20/2024
Listing Agent: Ellen R. Hastings, Lake & Company