Alexandria city home prices

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are considering 22301, 22302, and 22305. Wondering if now is a good time to buy, or if waiting makes sense.

Waiting for what? Prices to decrease?

Because of the obvious bubble stoked by the Fed.

But don't fight the fed and try to time it. But buy a home you can afford for long term and will ft your lifestyle for 10+ years and you can relax.

Along that note, TcW work for you or going private?

I'm pretty sure this is the real estate forum, not the bust-on-everyone-else's-school forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's easy to see past housing trends. Just type a zip or address into Zillow. Nobody can tell you you will be safe, but close-in desirable neighborhoods never really ranked. They just stalled a bit.

That's why the SEC requires funds to tell investors that a fund's past performance does not necessarily predict future results.

If realtors were true professionals with fiduciary responsibilities, they would tell you this too

Now, if you are savvy investor you can do market research, run estimates on maintenance costs, look at current rents and see if it would make could returns. But you are querying an anonymous forum so suspects seasoned real estate investor you are not.

So buy something that you can afford all associated costs for (esp schools), for long term with the assumption that you will not get any money back. Because with Fed and the recovery to recession, these are very strange day for real estate

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are considering 22301, 22302, and 22305. Wondering if now is a good time to buy, or if waiting makes sense.

Waiting for what? Prices to decrease?

Because of the obvious bubble stoked by the Fed.

But don't fight the fed and try to time it. But buy a home you can afford for long term and will ft your lifestyle for 10+ years and you can relax.

Along that note, TcW work for you or going private?

I'm pretty sure this is the real estate forum, not the bust-on-everyone-else's-school forum.

Hey, considering how much flak ACPS gets n general, at least I didn't say 'assume you going private'? From what I can tell there are a lot of great elem schools but folks question hS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Probably private when kids are in the picture, but we shall see. So, money is safe (as age as anywhere) by buying in Alexandria City?

Ha! No such luck, anywhere. But there is a LOT of future expenses in the Capital Improvement Plan for Alexandria City over the next 10 years, so who knows what that will do to real estate taxes other than up, and possibly far enough up to drive people out of Alexandria City!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are considering 22301, 22302, and 22305. Wondering if now is a good time to buy, or if waiting makes sense.

Waiting for what? Prices to decrease?

Because of the obvious bubble stoked by the Fed.

But don't fight the fed and try to time it. But buy a home you can afford for long term and will ft your lifestyle for 10+ years and you can relax.

Along that note, TcW work for you or going private?

I'm pretty sure this is the real estate forum, not the bust-on-everyone-else's-school forum.

Quality of public schools and real estate value go hand in hand, now don't they?

[Anonymous]

Location matters. Based on my Zillow research, homes in Falls Church City and Fairfax are not up to bubble prices, while homes in many parts of Alexandria City have surpassed bubble prices. Everyone likes to believe we're suffering in Alexandria, but many of us have fared quite well.

[Anonymous]

DC Metro home prices were up 9.6 percent in 2013 January 20, 2014 by Corey Hart on REALESTATE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

[/url]http://www.rbintel.com/blog/dc-metro-home-prices-were-96-percent-2013[url]


Really worth the read for those interested. Shows data on Falls Church City, Arlington, Alexandria City, WashingtonDC, Fairfax City, Fairfax, Montgomery, Prince George's, Loudoun, Anne Arundel, Prince William, Frederick, MD, Howard

[Anonymous]

http://www.rbintel.com/blog/dc-metro-home-prices-were-96-percent-2013

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are considering 22301, 22302, and 22305. Wondering if now is a good time to buy, or if waiting makes sense.

Wait until the fall/winter. Less houses but less competition for those houses also and slightly lower prices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are considering 22301, 22302, and 22305. Wondering if now is a good time to buy, or if waiting makes sense.

Wait until the fall/winter. Less houses but less competition for those houses also and slightly lower prices.

In honor of the grammar nazi thread:

Wait until the fall/winter. Fewer houses but less competition for those houses also and slightly lower prices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Asking prices by me are definitely higher than they were when we bought in 2005. But where we are (North old Town, near metro) they never really crashed either, just kind of stagnated, then started gradually climbing in maybe 2011. Now they seem very high to me again.

For example, the house on the next block sold for $725K in late 2004 and they're now asking $895K. Very similar houses on the same block sold for $790-$840K in 2012. These are all townhouses, same square footage. They may have slightly different layouts and/or upgrades so I can't say they're identical. But gives some sense of trends.

Townhouse across the street sold for $550K in late 2004 and is now asking $725K. Last summer, the one next door to it (very similar, but no garage) sold for $655K. In 2012, another one of that block of houses sold for $650K.

I don't know whether to feel proud or sad that I know the exact homes you are talking about based on the prices you list. I watch the local market like a hawk and have memorized the prices. I am even closer to the metro than you are and it's pretty amazing how high the prices have gone around here. People are snapping up the near million-dollar townhomes in Old Town Commons like they were going out of style. Who would've thought. And there's no stopping them with all of the future redevelopment coming on line. Andrew Adkins going away. That one alone is just going to totally transform the neighborhood. Then we have Bastille and Lost Dog on the way. Really exciting time to be living in this part of Old Town.

[Anonymous]

The market is kind of crazy in the 3 zips you mentioned. We're in 22305 and considering upgrading to a bigger place but NOTHING is coming out in the 900-ish range or if it does its snapped up in a second. There are a couple that are out there and languished but they are weird and overpriced. Our neighbors just sold and the house went before it was technically on the market (sold Sat before the open house) and another neighbor who moved out of state sold theirs just by talking to an agent who had people lined up to move as soon as something came available.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Asking prices by me are definitely higher than they were when we bought in 2005. But where we are (North old Town, near metro) they never really crashed either, just kind of stagnated, then started gradually climbing in maybe 2011. Now they seem very high to me again.

For example, the house on the next block sold for $725K in late 2004 and they're now asking $895K. Very similar houses on the same block sold for $790-$840K in 2012. These are all townhouses, same square footage. They may have slightly different layouts and/or upgrades so I can't say they're identical. But gives some sense of trends.

Townhouse across the street sold for $550K in late 2004 and is now asking $725K. Last summer, the one next door to it (very similar, but no garage) sold for $655K. In 2012, another one of that block of houses sold for $650K.

I don't know whether to feel proud or sad that I know the exact homes you are talking about based on the prices you list. I watch the local market like a hawk and have memorized the prices. I am even closer to the metro than you are and it's pretty amazing how high the prices have gone around here. People are snapping up the near million-dollar townhomes in Old Town Commons like they were going out of style. Who would've thought. And there's no stopping them with all of the future redevelopment coming on line. Andrew Adkins going away. That one alone is just going to totally transform the neighborhood. Then we have Bastille and Lost Dog on the way. Really exciting time to be living in this part of Old Town.

The City must put back all the public housing it is tearing down.

The City is relying on developers to redevelop the public housing blocks + purchase additional parcels of land and buildings to make a true mixed income area.

I am willing to bet those paying close to a million never look past their real estate agents promise not to worry all the public housing is going away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Asking prices by me are definitely higher than they were when we bought in 2005. But where we are (North old Town, near metro) they never really crashed either, just kind of stagnated, then started gradually climbing in maybe 2011. Now they seem very high to me again.

For example, the house on the next block sold for $725K in late 2004 and they're now asking $895K. Very similar houses on the same block sold for $790-$840K in 2012. These are all townhouses, same square footage. They may have slightly different layouts and/or upgrades so I can't say they're identical. But gives some sense of trends.

Townhouse across the street sold for $550K in late 2004 and is now asking $725K. Last summer, the one next door to it (very similar, but no garage) sold for $655K. In 2012, another one of that block of houses sold for $650K.

I don't know whether to feel proud or sad that I know the exact homes you are talking about based on the prices you list. I watch the local market like a hawk and have memorized the prices. I am even closer to the metro than you are and it's pretty amazing how high the prices have gone around here. People are snapping up the near million-dollar townhomes in Old Town Commons like they were going out of style. Who would've thought. And there's no stopping them with all of the future redevelopment coming on line. Andrew Adkins going away. That one alone is just going to totally transform the neighborhood. Then we have Bastille and Lost Dog on the way. Really exciting time to be living in this part of Old Town.

The City must put back all the public housing it is tearing down.

The City is relying on developers to redevelop the public housing blocks + purchase additional parcels of land and buildings to make a true mixed income area.

I am willing to bet those paying close to a million never look past their real estate agents promise not to worry all the public housing is going away.

They have to put in the same number of low income units, but rather than 3-4 bedroom townhouses, they are doing small apartments in many cases. A lot of those townhouses had unapproved people crashing with the families that were supposed to live there. I can tell you that the vibe in the blocks where they knocked down Bland and mixed low income/public housing into market rate houses is totally different. I actually support maintaining public housing near public transit-but shifting away from concentrated public housing is the right thing to do as it just perpetuates and concentrates poverty.

[Anonymous]

I'm in north Old Town and our condo sold for $75k more than it's currently worth ten years ago. So for us, it hasn't rebounded.

I think the condo market might be tougher than the townhome market in Alexandria b/c the people buying 600-900k homes are probably planning on private school, so the quality of local publics doesn't factor in much. Whereas the people in the market for a 2 bedroom condo are likely small families who do indeed care about public schools and want a good local option - which you can't find in Alexandria.