The ‘Skinny House,’ a Sacramento landmark, finds buyer within days of $448,000 listing
Sacramento’s so-called Skinny House in the South Land Park neighborhood didn’t last long on the market at an asking price of $448,000.
Less than a week after becoming available, the unique 1,109-square-foot two-bedroom, two-bath home at 4920 Del Rio Road has an offer pending.
The tiny home, which is only 8 feet deep at its south end, has attracted a lot of attention from passersby.
“This Skinny Home is somewhat of a neighborhood landmark,” said Ryan Lundquist, a Sacramento real estate appraiser and market analyst. “Locals might not know the specific address, but if you were to say ‘that one skinny house on Del Rio Road,’ chances are anyone in South Land Park would know exactly what you’re talking about.”
John Johnston was the home’s first owner and helped design it in 2006. He was left deciding what to do with a sliver of vacant land next to a triplex that he had purchased. His plan: Build a two-story, custom loft-style home that would be one of the city’s more imaginative infill projects.
“I think this house is a wonderful house,” Johnston told The Sacramento Bee in a 2006 article.
When the house was being built, Johnston painted the words “It is a house” on the wood exterior wall to answer questions about what was going up on the tiny lot.
While the home’s width doesn’t exceed 12 feet, it boasts a 12-by-19-foot, light-filled living room.
The house has hardwood flooring, 10-foot vaulted ceilings, a Juliet balcony off the primary bedroom, “beautiful 100-year-old vintage front doors from Italy and antique iron window grates from New England,” according to the listing. “This home is truly one of a kind.”
There’s a backyard deck and low-maintenance, drought-tolerant landscaping on the 2,040-square-foot (.047-acre) triangular lot.
The real estate listing calls it a “unique, European-inspired home in (an) established South Land Park Estates neighborhood” and an ideal example of a custom loft-style home supporting innovative infill development.”
The current owner of the home could not be reached for comment. Listing agent Katherine Howes of Cook Realty said the sellers received multiple offers on the property after holding open houses the first weekend it hit the market.
“This is definitely a unique design because it’s not every day you see a home only 8-feet to 12-feet deep,” Lundquist said. “But that is part of the allure of the property. It’s true this modern skinny home would absolutely not work for everyone, but that’s OK because it doesn’t have to. Living in something that breaks the mold is going to be perfect for a certain set of buyers who value minimalism, interesting design, and don’t want a typical earth-toned stucco subdivision box we see sprinkled throughout every county in the region. Living in somewhat of a conversation piece is appealing and it almost gives the owner bragging rights to a certain extent.”
While unique for Sacramento, the property doesn’t come close to the narrowest home in the world. That honor goes to the Keret House in Warsaw, Poland, completed in 2012, according to Guinness World Records. That tiny residence measures just 3 feet at its narrowest and less than 5 feet at its widest.
Lundquist said such narrow homes are rare, but there are a couple more residences built on small pieces of land around the Sacramento area.
He said the Del Rio Road home is similar to a four-story half-plex in midtown at 2007 Q St. that is only 17 feet wide. Another home at 7437 Antelope Road in Citrus Heights was built about a year ago and “embodies a similar modern skinny look,” he said.
“It’s not common to see such a skinny home, but sometimes units are built on tiny pieces of land,” he said. “It’s really a testament to creative design and that you don’t need much space to make things work either.”
This story was originally published November 12, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
