tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13164186.post114919627452403122..comments2024-01-27T19:26:32.604-05:00Comments on Bubble Meter: Washington, DC PicturesDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11169148764438565562noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13164186.post-1149639000832936712006-06-06T20:10:00.000-04:002006-06-06T20:10:00.000-04:00Some people like Nova, some like DC. So what's the...<I>Some people like Nova, some like DC. So what's the big deal? Everyone is different, and that's what makes life interesting.</I><BR/><BR/>I raise my glass to you, steinravnik. It's about time somebody said it. I live in Maryland, and generally I feel the same way about your insights. <BR/><BR/>The cheerleading about what city/area is better gets old really fast. It really is a personal preference -- two people can look at the exact same area/neighborhood and have two completely different opinions about it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13164186.post-1149510279825777882006-06-05T08:24:00.000-04:002006-06-05T08:24:00.000-04:00"So what, they got 3 low-ball offers, big deal. "N..."So what, they got 3 low-ball offers, big deal. "<BR/><BR/>Nope. They were nice offers, and accepted one. First weekend. BUBBLEPWN3D!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13164186.post-1149470252426639982006-06-04T21:17:00.000-04:002006-06-04T21:17:00.000-04:00Our friends got 3 offers immediately for their con...<I>Our friends got 3 offers immediately for their condo in Arlington.</I><BR/><BR/>So what, they got 3 low-ball offers, big deal.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13164186.post-1149464090965948902006-06-04T19:34:00.000-04:002006-06-04T19:34:00.000-04:00proposition joe-I don't particularly care what you...proposition joe-<BR/><BR/>I don't particularly care what you think, as long as you don't live in the DC area. If you do insist on living here, and think there is a greater city or area, please move there. You will be happier, and current DC-area residents will be also. At least I will.<BR/><BR/>In the meantime, despite how much I like the area, I do think there is a raging housing bubble here.<BR/><BR/>A Redskins fanAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13164186.post-1149433046861586602006-06-04T10:57:00.000-04:002006-06-04T10:57:00.000-04:00Go to Detroit, Buffalo, and Baltimore and you will...Go to Detroit, Buffalo, and Baltimore and you will find people who firmly believe that their city is a great city and a wonderful place to live. Just because Bryce, redskins fan & fritz think DC is so wonderful doesn't mean a damn thing. You must compare DC to other capital cities around the world to come to an objective conclusion. Compared to London, Paris, etc, DC is clearly nowhere near the top of great cities. Perhaps it is better than Managua, Nicaragua, it least it has that. The "baked in" value theory of DC realestate is a fantasy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13164186.post-1149428232944116002006-06-04T09:37:00.000-04:002006-06-04T09:37:00.000-04:00michael and proposition joe are wrong. DC is a gr...michael and proposition joe are wrong. DC is a great city. I just don't believe that houses in and around it are worth nearly as much as they currently ask.<BR/><BR/>It is fine with me if people bash DC or the DC area.... as long as they don't live in or around it. If you hate DC and/or its environs, please leave now. You'll make everyone happier. And whatever you do, don't get an ARM loan for a $600,000 property in a "cesspool" and then whine to no end about how DC isn't that great. Like I said, spare us all the trouble and just leave.<BR/><BR/>A Redskins fanAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13164186.post-1149425380485915232006-06-04T08:49:00.000-04:002006-06-04T08:49:00.000-04:00I live near the canal in Georgetown, ... my street...<I>I live near the canal in Georgetown, ... my street is pretty quiet. There is no, repeat no, crime at all...</I><BR/><BR/><I>to say that it is not one of America's most beautiful cities is a minority view at best.</I><BR/><BR/>Well perhaps your section of Georgetown is one of the nicer neighborhoods in the entire US. There may be a very good reason for RE to be very expensive there. The argument that Bryce lays out is that the entire area is so nice that high prices are justified everywhere. Bryce seems to claim that high RE valuation across all of DC are "baked in" value due to the intrinsic goodness of DC.<BR/><BR/>That argument works for a small percentage of DC, however most of DC is marginal at best. High RE valuations in most of DC are not because DC is a great place to live, because clearly most areas of DC are not great places to live. The spring rally is a bust, prices are clearly headed down. They will probably bottom out in 2008/2009. Many parts of DC will revert to their true cracktown/murder capital status.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13164186.post-1149402061405360112006-06-04T02:21:00.000-04:002006-06-04T02:21:00.000-04:00John Kennedy said "Washington is a mixture of Nort...John Kennedy said "Washington is a mixture of Northern Charm and Southern Efficiency." Personally, I like it a lot. But I live near the canal in Georgetown, can get to the golf course quickly and can walk to work every day. M St is a half block away in the evenings, and yet my street is pretty quiet. There is no, repeat no, crime at all anywhere around this neck of the woods. The city is low-rise and gracious, the Potomac River is lovely and the mall and monuments are minutes away and I see them every day. There is almost never any snow, and what there is of winter is both short and mild. There is an endless stream of interesting political activities available every day. For some it's not right, but to say that it is not one of America's most beautiful cities is a minority view at best.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13164186.post-1149393245728199422006-06-03T23:54:00.000-04:002006-06-03T23:54:00.000-04:00Japan has Tokyo.Italy has Rome.France has Paris.En...Japan has Tokyo.<BR/><BR/>Italy has Rome.<BR/><BR/>France has Paris.<BR/><BR/>England has London.<BR/><BR/>Burkina Faso has Ouagadougou.<BR/><BR/>America has... DC?<BR/><BR/>50th best city in America (if that).<BR/><BR/>At least Mongolia's capital has the honesty of having cows graze in the city's main square.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13164186.post-1149390273961770892006-06-03T23:04:00.000-04:002006-06-03T23:04:00.000-04:00The hubris and arrogance is staggering. Have you ...The hubris and arrogance is staggering. Have you guys taken a look at DC? It is damned cesspool. I think you have been in the stink so long you've forgotten what life is like outside of it. At some point in the very near future the budgets will stop growing and start shrinking, those living large off federal tax dollars will be facing a cruel reality. DC will revert to something that closely resembles the late 1980's cracktown/murder capital DC.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13164186.post-1149387851996873832006-06-03T22:24:00.000-04:002006-06-03T22:24:00.000-04:00If $1,500 in gift cards didn't entice you, maybe a...If $1,500 in gift cards didn't entice you, maybe all you can eat crabs will.<BR/><BR/>Mica Condos are now offering an all you can eat crab "party" in a few weeks. Is it just me, or is this getting funnier by the week?<BR/><BR/>www.micacrabfeast.comJohn Fontainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00246801870171720131noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13164186.post-1149377493564956312006-06-03T19:31:00.000-04:002006-06-03T19:31:00.000-04:00How to lowball a seller...1. Put out lowball offer...How to lowball a seller...<BR/><BR/>1. Put out lowball offers on multiple homes. If one bites you're ready to start dealing. Chances are if you put in a lowball offer all sellers will return with a number they feel comfortable with. (Which probably won't be close to your price) When they do show them what their neighbor is willing to sell for. There's a good chance when they see the neighbors number they'll try to go lower. This is the reverse of a bidding war. ;-)<BR/><BR/>2. Here's the second way to lowball a sellers requires two buyers working together. The buyer that does not want the house to be lowballed submits a REALLY low offer. What this does is shock the seller into a new realty of what their house is worth. If the owners accept the offer you "gracefully" try to bow out but, while doing so have buyer number two submit an offer at the same price. The seller will forget about buyer one and sell to buyer two. If the owners don't accept the offer you play with them a little then get out. At this point you "softened" the seller up to accepting a lower offer. This is where buyer two comes in knowing how low the seller will go. ;-)<BR/><BR/>*The second technique is something only buyers can do together (not agents) and it won't make friends if people find out about what your doing. So don't ever tell people how you got the house for the price you did.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13164186.post-1149337251902107882006-06-03T08:20:00.000-04:002006-06-03T08:20:00.000-04:00"On a worldwide scale I'd rate DC as an average ci..."On a worldwide scale I'd rate DC as an average city"<BR/><BR/>The DC area has always had its share of transients who talk this way. It used to be a much smaller percentage of the population, though. Things have gotten worse, and there are more of these insipid whiners.<BR/><BR/>I'll give bryce this much, though: like Lereah, at least he drinks his own kool-aid. <BR/><BR/>The funniest thing about these "DC is an average city" types these days is that many of them have paid triple "average" prices to live in or near this "average" city. LOL. I love this area, having grown up in Maryland (and bryce, I love Maryland more than DC, though I like DC too), but that doesn't mean that I would pay any price to "own" here.<BR/><BR/>Meanwhile, I hear these transients whining that the weather is awful, you can't get this or that, the traffic is terrible (well, that's true- please help it out by leaving), can't wait to get back to some whiny Eurotrash capital or something, etc. And yet they just paid 600K for a townhouse on a busy suburban road or a rowhouse in a slum (urban or suburban). <BR/><BR/>Oh well. It's their money (or their banks' money).<BR/><BR/>A Redskins fanAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13164186.post-1149298237993227132006-06-02T21:30:00.000-04:002006-06-02T21:30:00.000-04:00On a worldwide scale I'd rate DC as an average cit...<B>On a worldwide scale I'd rate DC as an average city</B><BR/><BR/>I agree. Bake that fact into housing prices and you find DC realestate is wildly over valued. Speculation and the global credit boom have pushed the prices to these unstainable levels.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13164186.post-1149284620846937112006-06-02T17:43:00.000-04:002006-06-02T17:43:00.000-04:00Nope, not just from H street, I was just illustrat...Nope, not just from H street, I was just illustrating my commute. I generally don't tour the city on a nightly basis. But I have in the past spent most/all of my time in various parts of the District and my assessment still stands. And you can't pretend that your Dupont block represents all of DC either. In fact, my experiences on H Street are sadly more representative of what DC as a whole is like than most people want to admit--Yuppie NW residents especially who think that the other quadrants are a myth, or don't really "count".<BR/><BR/>And most of Arlington and Alexandria are certainly not majority GOP. Maybe farther-out cities and counties, but that's the model of what America looks like.<BR/><BR/>Alexandria (and I think Arlington too) has an entirely Dem City Council/Mayor (or whatever the Arlington equlivant is to those positions). Both went for Kerry. Both have more registered Democrats. I personally have worked/interned for, for anonymity's sake let's just say 2 of the top 10 liberal Dems in the House and volunteered on the Kerry and Gore campaigns.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13164186.post-1149284485021499012006-06-02T17:41:00.000-04:002006-06-02T17:41:00.000-04:00old town resident,Don't take this the wrong way. ...old town resident,<BR/><BR/>Don't take this the wrong way. I'm not defending DC per se. I live in DC now (and previously lived in NY-Bklyn Heights-as well as car-free cities in Europe). On a worldwide scale I'd rate DC as an average city, in fact I'm looking to leave soon. But, I take issue with anyone who claims that suburban Va, old town included, is better than DC. Even though I don't love DC, I dislike the suburbs for many reasons.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13164186.post-1149284050934674032006-06-02T17:34:00.000-04:002006-06-02T17:34:00.000-04:00"nope, a Mini."Of course, the car for persons who ..."nope, a Mini."<BR/><BR/>Of course, the car for persons who are in between SUV purchases. I guess you thought that the Italian Job rocked.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13164186.post-1149284032827207272006-06-02T17:33:00.000-04:002006-06-02T17:33:00.000-04:00Yeah, I lived in DC for a while in college and a g...Yeah, I lived in DC for a while in college and a good number of people I know still live in the District. I know where things are. I'm telling you, I have yet to be in a part of the city that is as resident-friendly as where I grew up, where I lived in Manhattan and where I live now. Maybe you've never lived anywhere else, maybe you don't mind the living situation. Either way, DC is just not a community type of place.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13164186.post-1149283866548295512006-06-02T17:31:00.000-04:002006-06-02T17:31:00.000-04:00Old town resident,It's ignorant to presume that wh...Old town resident,<BR/><BR/>It's ignorant to presume that what you see along one street represents an entire city.<BR/><BR/>And if you haven't yet noticed, the stop light beggers strategically postion themselves on the streets used by communters to Va. It's probably not a good business decsion on their part since most Va residents are GOP. But it does mean that these beggers are found nowhere else in the city. But again, you probably didn't know that either.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13164186.post-1149283541897491312006-06-02T17:25:00.001-04:002006-06-02T17:25:00.001-04:00make that "with a grocery store" By the way, there...make that "with a grocery store" <BR/><BR/>By the way, there are three safeways, and other non-chain grocery stores, within a ten minute walk (or, say a 3 minute SUV drive) from my DC house. You can't see them from the highway, so you probably don't know anything about them. It looks like Old Town is beat by this measurement.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13164186.post-1149283530404776872006-06-02T17:25:00.000-04:002006-06-02T17:25:00.000-04:00d in dc--nope, a Mini. And I literally do pass co...d in dc--<BR/><BR/>nope, a Mini. And I literally do pass condemed houses and get stuck waiting along H street. It's not ignorance--it's what happens.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13164186.post-1149283346241599682006-06-02T17:22:00.000-04:002006-06-02T17:22:00.000-04:00make that "with a grocery store"make that "with a grocery store"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13164186.post-1149283257962274542006-06-02T17:20:00.000-04:002006-06-02T17:20:00.000-04:00Hmm.. 3 blocks of successful projects in Old Town ...Hmm.. 3 blocks of successful projects in Old Town or most of SE, SW and NE DC? Or do you not count <I> those</I> quadrants as being part of DC?<BR/><BR/>And yep, if wanting to not be begged for change by a drunk man every evening on the way home to my $1350/month one bedroom (MassCourt again for example) and actually live in a neighborhood grocery store (not a convience store where I'd have to pay $4 for a loaf of bread), and having a neighborhood that is a real community that, yes, does in fact have a soul and where people know and like each other and are involved in the city and community life makes me too good for DC then I'm too good for DC. But really, I think that those are things that most people would like out of a neighborhood.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13164186.post-1149282307154544002006-06-02T17:05:00.000-04:002006-06-02T17:05:00.000-04:00Bryce - No kids and I don't live in Loudon. Yes m...Bryce - No kids and I don't live in Loudon. Yes murders do occur in NOVA - MS 13 is quite active if local news outlets are to be believed. The thing about DC is you have to really like DC to be motivated enough to live there - you obviously are so good for you. NOVA is for people who don't like hassals like myself.<BR/><BR/>NOVA Fence SitterAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13164186.post-1149282022108130512006-06-02T17:00:00.000-04:002006-06-02T17:00:00.000-04:00""now DC is so freakin' cool, man""I quite literal...""now DC is so freakin' cool, man""<BR/><BR/>I quite literally, never said that. But thanks for inventing it. Very creative!<BR/><BR/>bryceAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com