Are these H St. NE / Capitol Hill houses priced appropriately?
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Anonymous
Yup. Wrong price at wrong time. Other than street parking, not a single issue. Nice house, nice street. If i was in market, I would totally make an offer for $1.2M, could've gone for $1.4M in spring market. |
Anonymous
Not sure if it was mentioned earlier, but if I were a buyer, no dining space would be a dealbreaker. In fact I’m not sure how a house has this much square footage without a dining room. |
Anonymous
This place on the same block was contingent within a week: https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/627-G-St-SE-20003/home/9900782 |
Anonymous
I don't like this one but price is low and there is a lot of space, a buyer with a limited budget and creativity can make it work. |
Anonymous
This is a good one but above my budget. |
Anonymous
Agree. I've been in that house several times, it's beautiful. And huge for Capitol Hill. |
Anonymous
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3 more North of H (and north of $1m), taking awhile to sell. Thoughts?
1. https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/812-11th-St-NE-20002/home/9906009 Originally listed in July 2. https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/901-K-St-NE-20002/home/9903993 38 days on market 3. https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/642-L-St-NE-20002/unit-2/home/180487482 1 of 2 units, originally listed in July https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/605-M-St-NE-20002/home/9897951 This one is new, will it go quickly and for $1.47? |
Anonymous
Having been through a few downturns, I’ve been trying to say this for a while when people are arguing about how much the market will drop. The average market price is just an average and a cooling market disproportionately affects houses with flaws that aren’t fixable (or at least not for a feasible amount of $$). People who bought perfect houses in desirable locations may lose a bit if they need to sell quickly, but will be ok. People who paid top dollar for flawed houses will be hurt more. |
Anonymous
| Market isn't crashing, just readjusting itself. This is DC, you'll bounce back. |
Anonymous
1. I really like this house and am a little surprised it's sitting but I think proximity to H Street is a factor. Not sure how big of one because 11th is not one of the louder or more problem blocks in terms of negative impacts of H, but it might be enough to turn off buyers with kids or who value privacy/quiet. Any time you shrink your buyer pool, especially in a market like this, you extend how long you have to sit on the market. 2. I thought this looked familiar, and sure enough it was on the market back in 2019 when we were house hunting. The interior of this house is great (loved the arched doorways and I like that the kitchen is nice without feeling cookie cutter) but a huge dealbreaker for us was the outdoor space. It has this huge yard that requires upkeep and landscaping but is not private at all. And then the back patio area is teeny tiny. It feels like all of the negatives of having a big yard with few of the advantages. It was a problem for us at 1.1m and I'm betting an even bigger problem for buyers at 1.3m. 3. I think any condo split listed over 1m is really optimistic these days. Condos aren't moving in general right now, and at that price point... why? I would happily buy one of the row houses listed for under 1m before buying a condo at that price, even if the condo was newer and nicer. I just think it's a poor investment -- how much is that going to appreciate in the long run? I wish developers who did these splits would seek to keep the condos under 800k. The neighborhood needs more homes in the price range anyway, and I think it's really straining the market to have all these super-luxury condo units for 900k-1.1m on the market. There just isn't a big enough market for it. Keep the finishes less luxe and sell for less, and these units will move faster and actually benefit the neighborhood. |
Anonymous
I think the bolded is why you see a lot of angst in this neighborhood specifically. Inventory has been really tight for Capitol Hill and H Street for the last 5-6 years. It's a very desirable location to buy for a lot of people, due to the popularity of the elementary schools, the feel of the neighborhood, the appeal of H Street, Eastern Market, and Navy Yard, and the easy proximity to work for a lot of people. As a result, I think a lot of people bought compromise houses -- houses with major issues but that were in their price range and in the neighborhood they wanted. Those are the houses that are now sitting. And for people who bought them in the last 5 years, I don't really feel bad for them. It's not realistic to expect to realize gains on a house you bought at the the peak of a cycle in just a few years, especially not if the house has some significant downsides like being located on a very busy street or lacking outdoor space or having a weird layout or being in desperate need of a new kitchen. The old 7-10 year rule still applies -- don't buy a home you can't see spending at least 8 years living in before selling, and you will generally make a sound investment. Never assume you can sell something for 20% over what you paid in just 3-4 years. If it happens, bully for you. But don't bank on it. |
Anonymous
Its not an absolute. My condo was sold for $100k more than the price it was bought for 8 years ago. I feel a gain of 25% is decent for a 1 bed condo. |
Anonymous
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Timing is everything in real estate. If you try to sell while a recession is looming, you've to be very lucky to make significant profit.
To be realistic, residential homes shouldn't be seen as investment properties. When you need a home, you pick the best one in your price range, you live there and sell it when you need to. If you are lucky, timing works and you make some profit or at least not have a loss. |
Anonymous
Yes, that's a great return, but did your condo sell for $1m? I'm guessing no. Condos can be easy to sell but they need to priced correctly for condo buyers. This neighborhood is seeing an influx of condo splits that are priced like row houses. And when inventory is low and borrowing money is cheap, this might work okay especially if the condo is very nice and "lives like a house" with two floors and maybe a nice roof deck. But that's an atypical condo buyer -- that's someone who wanted a row house but couldn't find one or didn't like that the ones they found needed updating or had weird layouts. The typical condo buyer is someone who is either a first-time homebuyer or is downsizing from something else (due to divorce or empty-nesting, often). They tend to be cost-conscious. Even if they can afford to spend $1m, I think there is often a mental block against it because for that much money, you could just buy a house. This isn't even a new phenomenon. I've seen it a bunch in the last 5-6 years. Developers build these very high end condo buildings and then the units sit and sit and go through multiple price cuts before they find their level. It just seems like poor strategy. There's a big 4-unit building up on Florida Ave (righto of West Virginia) that went through this like 6 or 7 years ago. Very nice units, tons of space, huge roof decks, but they wanted over a million of them and the market just was not there. They ultimately sold for under 900k. One of them finally went for over a million earlier this year, but that was in March and I guarantee if they'd listed it later in the year it would still be sitting. They've changed the pricing history on Redfin but we toured these units when they were first built -- the top floor units were listed for 1m and the lower unites for 900k I think: https://redf.in/IZxcZP You just need to be careful about pricing condos on the high end. They are very susceptible to market shifts. |
Anonymous
I like house #2, but noticed it also sold back in 2017. I’m not aware of this corner being a trouble spot in the neighborhood, but I wonder if buyers are suspicious since it’s changing hands so frequently. |