Sunday, October 29, 2006

Rowhouses for Sale in Washington, DC


Rowhouse for sale in DC


Rowhouse for sale in DC
Posted by David at 1:09 AM

18 comments:

  1. wannabuyOctober 29, 2006 12:14 PM

    David,

    we keep reading about the huge inventory of homes for sale no N Va, has that begun to effect the markets in the "core" of DC? Last fall I was staying in Arlington and was absolutely amazed at the shear number of condo buildings going up. Has the construction madness continued? Any new buildings breaking ground?

    Neil

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  2. Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848October 29, 2006 4:53 PM

    On money.cnn.com they had a piece on the 10 worst RE markets for investors. DC was in there right along with Las Vegas.

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  3. LanceOctober 29, 2006 6:25 PM

    Wannabuy,

    Yep, you've hit the nail on the head. IF things were as bad as bubbleheads would have us believe, you wouldn't be seeing all this "construction madness". Of course, the power of the press can exert influence, albeit temporary ... especially when the thoughts of the "on-line press" get picked up by the MSM and given a legitemacy that hasn't been earned. MSM (main stream media) is good at thinking "if it's on line, it must be true" ... a common mistake since we used to equate something being published with it having been extensively screened first ... Which of course isn't true in the age of instant on-line printing. We're seeing a bubble-head induced slowdown ... but it won't last ... as your observation of all the construction in Arlington attests too. I happened to be there earlier today and was similarly surprised (and pleased) by all the beautiful buildings going up in place of the hastily constructed WWII housing --- and only marginally better '70s and '80s buildings that were there. Arlington is earning its true place as Washington's closest-in neighbor.

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  4. AnonymousOctober 29, 2006 11:08 PM

    We're at the bottom here. The air that was going to come out of the housing market, at least around here, is out. Inventory has been stable for half a year and interest rates have peaked and will almost certainly be heading down.

    Sure, there will be very little zeal for real estate as an investment for a while, which will keep appreciation modest, but there has been no price collapse and now it's too late.

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  5. robertOctober 29, 2006 11:28 PM

    Come on Lance, at least spread out your conflicting arguments over a few months time:


    Lance said...
    “At first glance, your logic seems correct. But thinking about it more, I started to realize that one problem with buyer's waiting it out is that builders stop building, so while demand continues to rise ...”
    October 27, 2006 1:02 PM


    Lance said...
    “Yep, you've hit the nail on the head. IF things were as bad as bubbleheads would have us believe, you wouldn't be seeing all this "construction madness".
    October 29, 2006 3:25 PM

    So, by waiting it out, builders will stop building. But we have all this "construction madness"? So there’s no problem in waiting it out, thanks for pointing that out.

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  6. LanceOctober 30, 2006 7:30 AM

    Robert,

    Did anyone ever tell you that by taking quotes out of context the message gets manipulated ... and changed? Oh wait, you MUST know that since you constantly do it!

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  7. robertOctober 30, 2006 11:13 AM

    Lance,
    Dates and times are provided for your reading pleasure.

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  8. PolishKnightOctober 30, 2006 1:04 PM

    Here's another one from him in the roundup thread:

    Prices are effected by expectations. Yes, it's going to take a while for the houses/condos already under construction to be finished and as such it'll be a while before we see no new housing show up. However, it's already known to us (including landlords) that there is going to be a stop to the flow from this "competition"/alternative supply. Landlords will thus price accordingly

    So apparently everyone, including Rentors, know the RE bubble has popped and killing construction which is why rents will continue to shoot up and push his easily panicked neighbor into taking her $100K+ out of the bank to buy an overpriced unit to avoid payign on a $200 pm increase that will probably be over by winter.

    Yeah, ok.

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  9. AnonymousOctober 30, 2006 4:49 PM

    Not certain about the point of the post, other than to show what some refer to as a rowhouse. Bottom one looks like it is in the Carrolsburg complex in Southwest. Southwest is pretty cool, but A LOT of subsidized housing and projects about a block or two away (and all the great benefits that go with it). Lots of police cars, fire trucks, kids cruising the streets, and your token crackheads sleeping on the benches in the park, etc. I must assume that it is a 2 bedroom and they want 400-500K for the POS.

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  10. AnonymousOctober 30, 2006 6:27 PM

    Please stop responding to Lance. He just does this to derail any intelligent discussion. Don't feed the trolls.

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  11. LanceOctober 30, 2006 7:21 PM

    Polishknight said:
    "So apparently everyone, including Rentors, know the RE bubble has popped and killing construction which is why rents will continue to shoot up and push his easily panicked neighbor into taking her $100K+ out of the bank to buy an overpriced unit to avoid payign on a $200 pm increase that will probably be over by winter."

    Nope, her rent will go up by something close to $600/month. She's been enjoying all the interest on the equity she pulled out of the condo, but even she is starting to realize how shortterm those gains are compared to the longterm costs of renting. Of course SHE is smart enough to know you're not going to see a "crash" in prices ... just an adjustment as has been occuring.

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  12. PolishKnightOctober 31, 2006 10:46 AM

    Lance wrote:
    Nope, her rent will go up by something close to $600/month. She's been enjoying all the interest on the equity she pulled out of the condo, but even she is starting to realize how shortterm those gains are compared to the longterm costs of renting. Of course SHE is smart enough to know you're not going to see a "crash" in prices ... just an adjustment as has been occuring.

    Let's do the math: If rents have increased about 20% or so, then a $600 increase translates into a base current rent of $3000 a month!!!!

    Something smells fishy and it's not the rats on the Alexandria waterfront...

    I found 4295 units available for under $3K in the DC area on Craigslist. Up the price to $4K, and there's 4471. Want to go cheap and maybe not spend $3000K or so on rent? There's 3272 units available below $2K. There's 1600 units below $1.5K!!! There are 1153 listings between 2 to 3K including in coveted northwest and dupont circle.

    Granted, not all of these places are going to be the greatest but clearly landlords are not all massively raising their rent in anticipation of a huge building shutdown (even as you have failed to reconcile this with your claim that builders are still going like crazy.)

    Give us a price range. What is she paying now and where to justify a huge $600 price increase? (Everytime I ask for specifics about such stories from people I get nebulous answers similar to the location of the Cruise wedding.)

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  13. LanceOctober 31, 2006 5:02 PM

    over $2,700 now ... in "Northwest" ...(not downtown)... and that is standard for a 2 bedroom 1400 sq ft unit

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  14. j_e_r_k_s_t_o_r_eOctober 31, 2006 10:12 PM

    Lance, my man. I wanted to check in on the status of those 52,000 condos coming online between 2006-7. Have Arnold & Porter and White & Case hired 26,000 summer interns each and thrown in a free condo? How's Sursum Corda doin'? Good thing they solved that gang hit recently. Let the buying begin!

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  15. j_e_r_k_s_t_o_r_eOctober 31, 2006 10:14 PM

    Look at that first rowhouse. I guess Sotheby's hasn't studied "defense and maintenance of the brand." Pretty soon they'll be selling crying clown velvets at their Madison Ave. showroom, too.

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  16. PolishKnightNovember 01, 2006 12:47 PM

    Here's one:

    http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/doc/apa/228626034.html

    "$2150 / 2br - BRAND NEW!!+HUGE DECK!!** UPPER GEORGETOWN"

    and

    http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/doc/apa/228585417.html

    "$2900 / 2br - Georgetown Condo Overlooking Canal"

    There apparently are plenty of places available in her price range without her having to move. Some are priced even much lower.

    186 2 br apartments are available on craigslist alone with a median price of about $2300. Only _68_ are above $3K.

    Good luck to her landlord getting that extra $600 from her. Maybe he can be one of those lucky sellers who can get their asking price without having to wait the "correction" out...

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  17. PolishKnightNovember 01, 2006 1:09 PM

    Renting vs. Owning in Georgetown

    I had some fun and researched a high end property in Georgetown that's offered on Craigslist for $2,900. Here's the listing:

    http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/doc/apa/228585417.html

    "$2900 / 2br - Georgetown Condo Overlooking Canal ... Condo is an end unit & contains approximately 1,200 SF. Cable TV and water included in rental price. Electrical expense will be responsibility of tenant. "

    Slightly smaller than 1400 sq ft, but this is all inclusive except for electricity (I liked my move from California to here because electricity is so darn cheap. You all don't know how good you have it.)

    Ok, now to buy?

    Washingtonpost's RE assessment lists multiple condos at this address selling in 2005 (real estate never goes down, right?) between $500 to $600K. At 6.4% IO only loan, financing is about $2700 on the low end. Taxes are a wash (What someone gets back in Fed Taxes often comes out of their property taxes) and they have to pay condo association fees plus maintenance.

    Conclusion: The landlord probably is pretty close to breakeven and probably some cash loss per month assuming 0 equity. If they bought 2 years ago and have equity, they're probably at breakeven.

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  18. AnonymousNovember 03, 2006 8:35 PM

    all this dicussion makes me think what an Apprasier used to tell 1st time home buyers years ago....if you can rent the property for close to the mortgage than he'd buy it....it will be interesting to see what happens to all these fools that bought 1 bedrooms during the boom and they cant unload them nor rent them for the IO that just adjusted....

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