Kerrytown Living

Ask people what they love about downtown Ann Arbor and, sooner or later, the conversation lands in Kerrytown. It's the pocket just north and east of Main Street where a 100-plus-year-old farmers market, a legendary deli, a concert house in an old house, and a river trail are all within a few blocks of each other.

What makes Kerrytown different isn't one attraction. It's the density of good, independent, non-chain life packed into a handful of blocks. Groceries, coffee, dinner, live music, a boat launch, and a library card are all close at hand — reachable on foot, by bike, by bus, or with a very short drive and parking nearby. However you get around, daily errands stop being a project.

Here's the tour, section by section.

Real Estate

Kerrytown housing is a mix that's hard to find anywhere else in Washtenaw County: 19th-century frame houses on tree-lined streets, converted industrial and commercial buildings, and a newer generation of well-built downtown condos. Because the neighborhood sits inside the Old Fourth Ward and adjacent historic districts, the streetscape has stayed intact — which is exactly why demand here stays steady.

As of early August 2026, there are roughly 15 active listings in the Kerrytown and near-north-downtown map area, ranging from about $469,000 to $2.2 million. Condos dominate the upper end; the handful of single-family homes that come available tend to move quickly.

See everything currently for sale: Kerrytown-area active listings

Featured Listings in the Neighborhood

515 N. Ashley Street — $599,000 · 3 bed · 2 bath · 1,650 sq ft · Single family

A true downtown single-family home — the rarest thing on this list. Three bedrooms, a real yard, and a location that puts the farmers market, Zingerman's, and the Border-to-Border Trail just minutes from the front door. If you've been waiting for a house (not a condo) inside the downtown ring, this is it.

651 N 5th Ave — $550,000 · 2 bed · 3 bath · 1,529 sq ft · Condo

Low-maintenance living two blocks from Kerrytown Market & Shops. Three baths across 1,529 square feet makes it work as easily for a couple who host as for someone downsizing from a big house and unwilling to give up easy access to everything downtown. Lock the door and dinner is minutes away.

Curious what your own place would bring in this market? We're happy to run the numbers — get in touch.

Grocery Stores

This is the section that makes daily life here so easy. Very few American neighborhoods can feed you this well within four blocks.

• Ann Arbor Farmers Market — 315 Detroit St. The anchor. A producer-only market that's been running for more than a century, with roughly 130 Michigan vendors: produce, eggs, pastured meat, lake fish, flowers, bread, cheese, maple syrup, plus makers and artists. Saturdays year-round and Wednesdays in season. Locals shop it like a grocery run, not a tourist stop.
• People's Food Co-op — 216 N. Fourth Ave. Member-owned since the 1970s. Bulk bins, local and organic produce, a strong prepared-food case, and a bike rack out front. You don't have to be a member to shop.
• Sparrow Market — Kerrytown Market & Shops. Old-school butcher counter with real advice attached. Ask what's good this week and you'll get an honest answer.
• Monahan's Seafood Market — Kerrytown Market & Shops. Forty-plus years of fresh fish and shellfish in a landlocked state, plus one of the best lunch counters in town (the fish tacos and chowder have a following).
• Zingerman's Delicatessen — 422 Detroit St. Yes, it's a restaurant. It's also where you buy the cheese, olive oil, and bread that make a Tuesday dinner feel intentional.
• Argus Farm Stop — 325 W. Liberty, a short trip from the neighborhood. Seven-day-a-week grocery stocked entirely with Michigan producers, where farmers set their own prices. Great coffee, too.

Retail

Kerrytown's shopping is almost entirely independent — the kind of stores where the owner is behind the counter and nothing on the shelf came from a corporate planogram.

• Kerrytown Market & Shops — 407 N. Fifth Ave. The heart of it: three connected levels of markets, shops, and eateries in repurposed brick buildings. Browse the full directory before you go.
• FOUND — Kerrytown Shops. A beautifully curated mix of vintage, artisan, and new: jewelry, cards, candles, art supplies, home goods. The gift-emergency solution.
• Mudpuddles Toy Store — Kerrytown Shops. Independent toy shop heavy on the imaginative, screen-free end of the spectrum.
• Malofta Vintage — Kerrytown Shops. Well-edited vintage clothing and objects for people who'd rather not buy new.
• The Knife Stop — Kerrytown Shops. Sharpening and knives, which is exactly the sort of practical business that survives in a real neighborhood.
• Spun — 410 N. Fourth Ave. A yarn and fiber shop in the Kerrytown Shops with a wall of color you can lose an hour to, plus classes and a knowledgeable staff who will happily rescue a stalled project.
• Thistle & Bess — 222 N. Fourth Ave. Fine jewelry, home, and lifestyle goods in a bright, welcoming, step-free storefront. Handmade collections with real stories behind them, and the place locals go for an engagement ring or a milestone gift.
• Fourth Ave Birkenstock — 209 N. Fourth Ave. Michigan's largest Birkenstock store, independently run on this block since 1989. Sandals, clogs, boots, and slippers for everyone in the house, with staff who actually fit you properly.
• The Fourth Avenue books-and-music block — Between Ann and Catherine, Fourth Ave is one of the best browsing stretches in Michigan. Encore Records (208 N. Fourth Ave.) has been dealing in vinyl, 45s, CDs, tapes, and sheet music for more than fifty years. Motte & Bailey Booksellers (212 N. Fourth Ave.) stocks roughly 12,500 used and rare books across every subject. And Your Media Exchange (410 N. Fourth Ave., lower level of the Kerrytown Shops) buys, sells, and trades used music, movies, books, and games — the kind of place where you go in for one thing and leave with five.
• Literati Bookstore — a few blocks south, and worth the extra minutes.

Restaurants & Cafés

• Zingerman's Delicatessen — 422 Detroit St. Founded 1982, and still the reason a lot of people first hear of Ann Arbor. Yes, there's a line. Yes, get the Reuben.
• Little Kim — 407 N. Fifth Ave. Chef Ji Hye Kim's casual, all-vegetarian Korean counter (a Zingerman's partnership, and a sibling to Miss Kim). Fast, bright, and genuinely great food.
• Sweetwaters Coffee & Tea — Kerrytown Shops. The neighborhood's living room, with a seasonal bike corral parked right out front.
• Monahan's lunch counter — Kerrytown Shops. Chowder, tacos, and a stool. Lunch, solved.
• Bløm Meadworks — 100 S. Fourth Ave. Dry session meads made with Michigan honey, in a tasting room that feels like a good neighborhood bar.
• RoosRoast Coffee — 117 E. Liberty. Roasted in town, hand-printed bags, and the best argument in Ann Arbor for buying beans locally.
• Miss Kim — 415 N. Fifth Ave. Chef Ji Hye Kim's full-service Korean restaurant, built on Michigan produce and historic Korean recipes — a James Beard–recognized kitchen and one of the best meals in the state. On-site parking in the adjacent lot, and the entrance is off that lot.
• PizzaPazza — 407 N. Fifth Ave., in the Kerrytown Shops. Chef Jeff Condit's wood-fired Neapolitan pies, blistered at 900 degrees in about ninety seconds. It started as a food truck and graduated to an open kitchen here in late 2023.
• Heidelberg — 215 N. Main St. German food and beer for more than sixty years, spread over three levels: the restaurant, the Rathskeller downstairs, and the Club Above. Schnitzel, wurst, and a room that hasn't chased a single trend.
• Detroit Street Filling Station — 300 Detroit St. Fully vegan, from The Lunch Room crew, in a restored corner building with one of the nicest patios in Kerrytown. Good enough that non-vegans forget to notice.
• Detroit Pizza Pub — 207 N. Main St. Detroit-style square pan pizza — crispy cheese edges, thick sauce stripes — with a bar attached and late hours. The neighborhood's answer to a 10 p.m. craving.
• Bayt Almocha — 109 Catherine St. The newest coffee house in the neighborhood, and a very different one: Yemeni coffee and tea traditions, pistachio and cardamom pastries, open until 9 p.m. most nights. A real evening spot, not just a morning one.
• Food trucks at the Farmers Market — 315 Detroit St. Beyond the produce stands, market days bring prepared-food vendors, carts, and pop-ups, and from July through October the market hosts an evening Food Truck Rally on the third Wednesday, 5–8 p.m., with live music. Dinner outdoors, three blocks from home.

Culture & Entertainment

• Kerrytown Concert House — 415 N. Fourth Ave. A converted Victorian house where you can hear world-class jazz, classical, and cabaret from about twenty feet away. One of the most intimate music rooms in the Midwest, and a genuine neighborhood institution.
• North Star Lounge — 301 N. Fifth Ave., at Catherine. An intimate music venue and vegan bar in a historic red-brick house, from the Detroit Street Filling Station and Lunch Room team. Live music Wednesday through Saturday, monthly open mics, LGBTQ+ nights, Friday bluegrass with a free happy-hour set, board games on the tables, and a full range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. It's the closest thing Kerrytown has to a neighborhood clubhouse.
• Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum — 220 E. Ann St. Housed in a historic firehouse since 1982, now part of a combined science and nature center. The default rainy-Saturday plan for anyone with kids.
• Ann Arbor District Library, Downtown — 343 S. Fifth Ave. Far more than books: tool and instrument lending, art, events, and one of the best public library systems in the country.
• The Ark — 316 S. Main. Nonprofit folk and roots music venue, 300-plus shows a year.
• Michigan Theater — 603 E. Liberty. A restored 1928 movie palace with a Barton organ that still gets played before films.
• Historic Kerrytown — the surrounding Old Fourth Ward is one of Ann Arbor's oldest neighborhoods, settled by 19th-century German and Greek immigrant families. The Kerrytown complex itself came out of a 1970s effort to save and repurpose the district's old commercial buildings rather than clear them. That decision is why the neighborhood still looks and feels like somewhere.

Recreation

The Huron River is three blocks from Kerrytown, which surprises people every time.

• Argo Park & Nature Area — River frontage, picnic shelters, a fishing dock, and the 2.2-mile Argo Pond loop.
• Argo Park Canoe Livery — Canoe, kayak, and raft rentals May through October, with on-site parking. Get on the water and be home in minutes.
• Argo Cascades — A series of drops built into the old mill race. On a hot Saturday it's hundreds of people floating through in tubes and kayaks, and it is the single most Ann Arbor thing you can do.
• Border-to-Border Trail — 5.6 flat, paved miles through Ann Arbor along the river, part of a countywide trail reaching from Dexter to Ypsilanti. Commute on it, run on it, or ride it out of town for the afternoon.
• Wheeler Park — Fourth Ave. at Depot. The neighborhood's own park: playground, ball court, and the site of summer community events.
• Getting around, however you get around — The Blake Transit Center is about four blocks away, connecting to most of TheRide's routes, and TheRide also operates A-Ride paratransit service. There's a seasonal bike corral on Fifth Ave in front of Sweetwaters, bike racks throughout, and the county lots go free after 6 p.m. on weekdays and all day Sunday — for the times you do drive.

The Cool Factor Is the Point

Plenty of neighborhoods are convenient. What's rare is a neighborhood where almost everything close by is worth the trip — locally owned, distinctive, and old enough to have a story. Kerrytown has spent fifty years getting good at exactly that.

If it sounds like your kind of place, we'd love to show you around. Trillium Real Estate has been helping people make good real estate decisions in Ann Arbor since 2001, and we have two homes available in the neighborhood right now.

Browse Kerrytown-area listings · Contact Trillium · (734) 302-3011

Trillium Real Estate supports Equal Housing Opportunity. Neighborhood amenities are described for general interest and are not a representation about any household's needs or preferences.