The steady rise of East Ann Arbor: For roughly a decade last century, the neighborhoods around Packard and Platt were their own city. East Ann Arbor separated from Pittsfield Twp. in 1947, only to accept annexation to Ann Arbor in 1956 in exchange for completing a water and sewage system. Ever since, its modest neighborhoods have provided much of the city’s most affordable housing—but as this month’s map shows, even “affordable” is now more than $300,000. Among the homes in the former municipality that sold recently, 3250 Lorraine, a 3-bed, 2-bath, 1,508-square-foot ranch, went for $315,000; 3168 Lorraine, a 1,604-square-foot 3-bed, 1.1-bath Colonial, sold for $326,000; 3206 Springbrook, a 4-bed, 2.1-bath, 1,554-square-foot Victorian, garnered $365,000; and 3341 Creek, a 2,354-square-foot, 3-bed, 1.1-bath bungalow, fetched $390,000.
Ex-gov’s ex-house sells for $3.289M: Former governor Rick Snyder’s one-time 12,387-square-foot, 6-bedroom, 8.2-bath Superior Twp. mansion at 2016 Valleyview Dr. was the third-most expensive residential sale ever in the Ann Arbor School District and only the fifth to go for more than $3 million. Snyder sold the riverfront estate in 2015 for $1.775 million as his governorship was winding down. This latest listing touted its twenty-two-seat theater and an indoor pool with “locker rooms that rival the finest spa.” The new owners are oncologist Ray Esper and Joe Labuta, who also have a 3-bed, 2-bath, 2,193-square-foot home in Fort Myers, Florida, where Esper, a Wayne State Medical School alum, practices…