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Places Among Us: Red-hot ranches line low-profile neighborhood

Appreciation has come home to roost in Fair Oaks/Manhattan Manor, north of Gandy.

The Top 10 list of Hillsborough County neighborhoods with the fastest-rising property values is full of well-known places: Hyde Park, Davis Islands, Bayshore Beautiful, Fair Oaks/Manhattan Manor ...

Fair Oaks/Manhattan Manor?

If you don't know where that is, you probably missed out on a bargain.

In 1998, the average home in the neighborhood north of Gandy Boulevard and west of Dale Mabry Highway sold for $76,400, according to a recent St. Petersburg Times analysis.

In 2003, it sold for $141,000 - an increase of 85 percent.

That puts Fair Oaks/Manhattan Manor in a tie for No. 4, behind Ballast Point and ahead of Historic Hyde Park.

Longtime resident Marilyn Durst isn't surprised.

"There's nowhere else north of Gandy to go," she said.

The brick, ranch-style houses of Fair Oaks/Manhattan Manor were built in the 1950s and are "solid as granite," Durst said. Investors are descending in droves, spending $10,000 to $20,000 on renovations and selling quickly for tidy profits.

Developers are "drooling," she said.

So are homeowners.

In 1998, a 1,100-square-foot house on Hale Avenue sold for $92,500, county property records show. In October 2003, it went for $110,000. The new owners spent about $20,000 putting in wood floors, remodeling the kitchen and updating the bathrooms, said real estate agent Andrew Dougill.

In February, they unloaded it for $179,000.

That comes out to about $150 per square foot - on par with prices in Palma Ceia just a few years ago, Dougill said.

Around the corner on Bayview Avenue, former rental property recently went on the market for $120,000 and was under contract the same day.

"I suspect it sold for cash to a builder," Dougill said.

So far, Fair Oaks/Manhattan Manor hasn't been infected with teardown fever, or overrun by the 3,500-square-foot giants consuming whole blocks in some neighborhoods, including neighboring Virginia Park. But "contractors have told me it's on its way," said Steve Weston, president of the neighborhood association.

Some residents appreciate that they're living in a well-kept secret, half-hidden behind the commercial fringe along Dale Mabry Highway and church row on Manhattan Avenue. Flags sum up their collective personality: Stars and stripes dominate, Seminole and Gator flags vie for second. A single Florida flag says everything about roots; a single Confederate flag, something about tolerance.

This isn't a neighborhood where doorknob styles are debated by the city's Architectural Review Commission, or a request for a variance inspires a knock-down, drag-out fight. It's free-wheeling enough for one resident to put this sign up in his driveway: "If you taka my space, I breaka you face." And for another to park his boat, the Raisin' Hell, in the front yard. Its logo: a smiling raisin.

Kyle White bought his house in 2002 after scouring South Tampa for six months.

He wanted to escape Carrollwood and a life-sapping 40-minute commute to his job downtown. He was smitten by the beige ranch with blue trim, the converted carport and the big back yard. "It had a nice face," he said.

His two dogs approved, too.

White plunked down $127,000 and figures he could get $155,000 if he sold it today.

But "I'll never know," he said. "I'm never going to sell it."

- Ron Matus can be reached at 226-3405 or matus@sptimes.com

Tampa's collection of neighborhoods includes more than 50 south of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Hyde Park and Palma Ceia need little introduction, but others do. In an occasional series that continues this week, City Times explores some of them.

POPULATION: About 3,700

HOME TO: Jan Platt Regional Branch library, Foster Playground, Interbay Boys & Girls Club, St. Patrick's Catholic Church

DOMINATED BY: Ranch-style houses

TREND: Skyrocketing property values

PRO: Bargains

CON: Bargains going fast

NEIGHBORHOOD CONTACT: Marilyn Durst, 837-6092

Old Hyde Park: 1998: $375,000 2003: $777,000; % Increase: 107

Bayshore Beautiful: 1998: $160,000; 2003: $329,950; % Increase: 106

Ballast Point: 1998: $85,000; 2003: $158,000; % Increase: 86

Apollo Beach: 1998: $91,800; 2003: $169,450; % Increase: 85

Fair Oaks/Manhattan Manor: 1998: $78,900; 2003: $141,000; % Increase: 85

Historic Hyde Park: 1998: $197,150; 2003: $360,000; % Increase: 83

Port Tampa: 1998: $62,000; 2003: $111,750; % Increase: 80

South Seminole Heights: 1998: $60,000; 2003: $106,900; % Increase: 78

Davis Islands: 1998: $180,000; 2003: $318,000; % Increase: 77

Virginia Park: 1998: $124,000; 2003: $218,250; % Increase: 76

* Based on median sale prices.

Source: Compiled by the St. Petersburg Times from Hillsborough County property records.