SPRING MARKET!! What's the vibe?
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Anonymous
| Wow it’s crazy that 1.5 million isn’t enough to buy a house in Arlington! |
Anonymous
It’s more than enough but it’s competitive and at $1.5M it’s definitely not going to look like a “million dollar house.” Average teardown lots in N Arlington are about $1M, give or take a little depending on school zoning and desirability. So $1.5M is really a $1M lot and $500K house (likely 3/2-3 or smaller 4/3) |
Anonymous
| There were 500 sales of single family homes in Arlington last year, so yeah, you can buy a house in Arlington for less than $1.5. |
Anonymous
| There were 200 sales under $1 million. |
Anonymous
| Bad! |
Anonymous
It is, but it won't be very nice. If you go just a couple miles to the west or south, you'll find exceptionally nice properties at that price, but many folks are obsessed with having that N Arl address. |
Anonymous
Nah I’m obsessed with my 20 min door to door N Arlington to DC commute during rush. Priceless. Also fly regularly for work and getting to DCA during rush in 10 minutes is also perfection. You pay for the convenience and boy do you get it. |
Anonymous
It is because of the schools. If you have kids, make sure you look at schools in DC because many are not good. |
Anonymous
Interesting, but those times don't hold for the vast majority of N Arl. |
Anonymous
| As above poster, seeing well priced solid houses go quickly in NWDC. This seems partially due to overall low inventory and pent up demand (some people need to buy this season). So it will be interesting to see how things play out over next 2 months as the people who have to buy are off the market. But the margin of error is slim: houses with a couple of imperfections that would’ve also been scooped quickly a few years ago, as well as those with pricing that is too aspirational, seem to sit. It seems like some sellers/agents are guarding against this by pricing low, which is why you are seeing bidding wars relative to ask price. |
Anonymous
+1 Unless you are living in Rosslyn and working in Georgetown ... |
Anonymous
If you live near Rt 50 in Arlington it also holds |
Anonymous
| Houses in areas with little availability are going under contract within a day. But otherwise, market is stalled. Lots of "price improvements" on houses that are surprising. |
Anonymous
|
Very surprised in my neighborhood that houses that sat all summer and were delisted in December got relisted in the past month and have all sold. All in the $2.5-$3.5 range and all decent but had slightly at least one undesirable feature- bad street, corner lot, only one bedroom upstairs, 80s house on a block of 30s and 40s houses, etc.
So in my neighborhood at least I’m confused by the market. I thought things would sit but instead it feels like they’re flying, especially compared to last spring. I drive through a few other areas en route to work with “lower” price points ($900k-$2M) and that stuff is not moving at all. To me it feels like there are two different real estate universes operating in parallel. |
Anonymous
Better yet: drive your desired neighborhood a couple of times per week and watch for houses with lots of work trucks but that seem to be otherwise quiet. If you have a dog you can do this less conspicuously. On our dog’s billion walks per day we started to notice a hour with handyman trucks, then painting company trucks, then the garage would be open and we realized it looked really cleaned out. The lights were never on at night and I told DH we had to move money around and call our mortgage broker. When the house was listed, we had already been pre-approved for the mortgage and our real estate agent had already contacted their real estate agent. We got the house. |