Terrace Lake Gardens

Kansas City’s plat record dates the first Terrace Lake Gardens plat, lots 1 through 228, to 3 March 1955, recorded the following day. The second, lots 229 through 607, was filed on 8 August 1955. source

Only a five-lot tail followed: lots 608 through 612 cleared the city on 7 April 1960 and were recorded five days later. Jackson County’s own subdivision layer carries 1960 as the recorded year for the whole name, which is that last small plat rather than the 1955 body of the subdivision. source

The name predates the subdivision. A separate plat called simply Terrace Lake, covering block 1, was accepted on 25 February 1926 and recorded that March; a Terrace Lake Shopping Center plat followed in 1988. source

The subdivision is inside Kansas City and inside the Hickman Mills C-1 school district. source

The median home sold here was built in 1956. Most of what sells was built between 1956 and 1959. 44% of sales included finished basement space beyond the above-grade footprint - which matters here, because square footage quoted above grade can understate a house considerably.

By property type: Single Family (27).

Addresses here fall in ZIP 64137.

Both columns are medians over the same twelve months, so they are directly comparable.

Because the whole subdivision was platted in one 1955 push, the housing here is unusually consistent in age - which cuts both ways, since roofs, services and sewer laterals across the neighborhood are of one generation and tend to come due together. Ask what has already been replaced rather than assuming. Confirm the school assignment too, since a Kansas City mailing address here sits in Hickman Mills, and check that a comparable is not actually drawn from the older 1926 Terrace Lake plat.

With a median year built of 1956, most homes here are post-war stock. None of the following says anything about a specific house - they are the questions worth asking of any home of this age.

• Footprints are smaller than modern equivalents and closets are noticeably so. Square footage comparisons against newer stock tend to flatter the newer house.
• Garages are often one-car, detached, or absent, and electrical panels may have been upgraded once but not twice.
• The pre-1978 lead-paint disclosure and ten-day inspection window applies (40 CFR 745.110).

Deeds written in this era sometimes carry restrictive covenant language relating to race, religion or national origin. Where it appears, it is void and unenforceable in both states, and has been for decades: Missouri directs that such a recital be “ignored, as if the same never existed” source, and Kansas, where such covenants were already unlawful, added a release procedure effective 1 July 2024 source. An owner in either state may record a certificate of release, which does not alter the original document but restates that the covenant cannot be enforced. It is a paperwork question rather than a live restriction - but it is worth recognizing if it surfaces in your title work. What this language is, and how to release it.

Of the 27 homes sold, 1 were 2-bed, 20 were 3-bed, 6 were 4-bed.

Above-grade size ranged from about 936 to 1,356 sq ft across the middle 80% of sales, so the median alone understates how much variation there is.

Closings cluster in April, September and November, with 67% of the year's sales closing between April and September. Because closing typically follows the contract by a month or more, listing activity runs earlier than that.

• Armour Hills 73 sales
• Ruskin Heights 69 sales
• Marlborough Heights 65 sales
• Woodhaven 53 sales
• Cadence Villas 46 sales
• Somerbrook 45 sales
• Ruskin Hills 45 sales
• Staley Farms 43 sales
• Red Bridge 39 sales
• Gracemor 36 sales
• New Mark 35 sales
• Crestview 35 sales
• Broadland 35 sales
• Fountain Hills 34 sales
• Sherwood Estates 33 sales
• Brooke Hills 33 sales
• Robandee 33 sales
• Platte Ridge 33 sales
• Ward Park 31 sales
• Rockhill Gardens 29 sales
• Romanelli Gardens 29 sales
• North Creek Village 29 sales
• Wildwood West 29 sales
• North Hampton 28 sales