Relocating a House:

Over 100 years ago, a beautiful two and a half story home was built at 1705 Peck Street in Muskegon, Michigan. Today that same home stands at 372 W. Muskegon Street, about 3.5 miles away from it’s original home. The story begins with a non-profit agency in need of more office space. Thus, they purchase a home adjacent to them with the intentions of converting that home into offices. Unbeknownst to the agency, the home and district were protected because of it’s historical value, and thus their request to convert the home into offices denied by the city commission. In seeking a buyer for the property, the agency finds Kevin Eden, a young architectural designer who is passionate about historical homes. Eden gets a great deal on the house, but there is a catch. Eden will have to move the home to another location because the agency wants to keep the land.

After several months of red tape and planning, the house was finally moved yesterday to it’s new home. So what does it take to move a two and a half story home? It took seven crewmen along with workers from the cable, electric and phone companies to clear overhead lines. There were also city police personnel to block off the streets and direct traffic, along with representatives from public works/forestry to clear tree branches as the house moved along the streets.

My young neighbor joked that the house moved about a 1/4 of a mile every hour. That wasn’t so far off since the move began at 8 a.m. and ended a little after 4 p.m. in the afternoon. Again, the home only moved about 3.5 miles.

So what’s the bill for all of this? Well, it is said that the base cost for moving this home was around $50,000. Factors used in determining the cost of moving a home include – distance (how far the home needs to be moved), the type of house (there would have been assessment because this home was 2 1/2 stories), and the starting point and destination (corners to turn, etc.). It’s suspected that the fees have probably not yet been calculated for use of city personnel, phone and cable companies, etc. In the end however, Eden will probably pay much less than he would for new construction.

Moving a home is probably not as uncommon as one might think, especially one of historical significance. Eden’s home was the 10th house to be relocated to what is now called Muskegon’s “Historic In-Fill District”. Many such projects are taking place in other cities as well. Other reasons for moving a house might include: moving a home out of a flood or other potentially hazardous zone, home owner is selling the home but not the land or the home might be relocated to more valuable property such as one with lake/mountain views.

There is so much entailed in moving a home, so the first step one needs to take is finding a contractor skilled in house relocation. From there, the house movers/engineers will help you in getting appropriate permits, etc. The process can take several months of planning to complete. But as Eden stated, he is confident that all of the work will be worth it in the end.