Michigan saw its priciest public home sale in recent years late last week. A 15,000-square-foot home in Ann Arbor with 69 acres and a cattle farm sold for $12.8 million.
The home at 4000 Vorhies Road closed Aug. 29 for 42% higher than the asking price, according to Homes.com.
Listing agent Dan Gutfreund of Signature Sotheby’s International Realty told Homes.com that the double-digit sale price increase covers property added onto the deal during negotiations. That additional property was not listed.
That property is an adjacent cattle farm with farmland, a sheep barn, greenhouses and additional supportive structures used for The Good Shepherds farm, a nonprofit started by the Vorhies Road seller, Louis P. Ferris Jr., former owner of the Great Lakes Central Railroad, who died in 2022.
“The intention of the seller was to split the properties for the sale, and before the actual split went into the county, this particular buyer came in and decided to take it all,” said Gutfreund in an interview.
The home originally listed in October 2023 for $10 million, according to public records, eventually dropping to $8.99 million in April, not including the farmland. Below-asking offers previously came in on the home and there were only about six prospective buyers over the years, said Gutfreund.
“You’re really dealing with 1% of the 1%. … Ann Arbor does have some pockets of homes with high grossing values, but they don’t reach anywhere near this level,” said Gutfreund.
The home was built in 1994 and has four bedrooms, seven full bathrooms and three half-bathrooms across 15,364 square feet. It includes a 16-seat home theater, sauna, infinity pool, private pond, walking paths, blueberry farm, 3,703-bottle wine cellar, double fridges and ovens, a separate prep kitchen, a heated driveway and Italian marble in each bathroom.
It has copper roofs, vaulted ceilings and a chrome-drenched Harley Davidson-themed bar and billiards area. The home has many Prairie-style traits, with low-pitched roofs and an abundance of windows all around. Windows also feature sidelights, clerestory and large picture openings with stained glass and geometric designs on interior doors.
The seller has not been recorded publicly yet. Gutfreund noted that the purchase was made by a local family with “a high level of appreciation” for the home. The family plans to take over farming and raise their children on the ranch.
The priciest residential listing in Michigan currently asks $16 million for four cabins and 15.5 acres on a peninsula on Walloon Lake. A five-bedroom, six-and-a-half bathroom home in Petoskey with 14,636 square feet asks $13.99 million.
So far this year, the second-priciest home sale in the state was a $9.5 million lake house listing in Orchard Lake with five bedrooms, seven bathrooms and 9,369 square feet that closed Aug. 13.
It’s a rarity for the two high-priced sales. Few homes have closed for more than $8 million over the past few years, said Gutfreund. Past media reports identified the highest-priced home sales in 2024, topping out at $7 million.
Gutfreund attributes the Vorhies Road sale to timing, with finding a uniquely ideal buyer for the home’s offerings.
The median home sale price in Ann Arbor is $515,000, according to Homes.com data.
