When Shannon and Paul Beaulieu bought their house in Auburn, they didn’t think the land around them would be developed. They were wrong.

When the partners of a new Subaru dealership told the Beaulieus that their property was worth only $50,000, they were wrong, too.

Now the odd couple – a young family and a young business – appears to be stuck together.

The Beaulieus bought their home 11 years ago, even though they knew it was in an area zoned for commercial development. They told the Sun Journal that they didn’t think someone would buy the U-shaped parcel of land around them and put it to use.

When the owners of Evergreen Subaru decided to build their new dealership on the land, they offered the Beaulieus $50,000 for their home. We can understand why the family was put off. While they bought the house for $59,000 more than a decade ago, its value – like most others in Auburn – has grown several times over. In the city’s recent revaluation, the property was assessed at $178,000.

The owners of the dealership say they can’t afford to buy at that price, and the family says they need to make enough off the sale to buy a new home.

With Auburn’s strong commercial growth, it’s possible another business would find the Beaulieus’ property attractive – we can’t imagine another family wanting to live in the middle of a car lot.

We’d like to see this story work out for the business and the family. In the short term, it looks like the family and the car dealership are stuck as uneasy neighbors.