Would you buy on H Street?

[Anonymous]

We have lived in ::gasp:: Carver/Langston for over 5 years.. There are actually lots of DINK gentrifiers here, and a surprising number of kids running around. So yes, development will continue to push down H Street and Benning/Bladensburg, slow but steady. If you drive through you will see just how much is under construction.

All this to say: buying at H and 13 is a good bet. Things aren't perfect but they will continue to improve.

[Anonymous]

If you're a DINK with an $800K budget and you want space, go EOTR. You can get a detached house by the Benning Rd metro for half your budget.

$400K less on your mortgage is just shy of $2,000 a month in savings. You get more space, better transit access, and you can Uber to the same bars and restaurants on H St. in about 10 minutes except all your food and drinks are essentially free because you're saving so much on your house.

[Anonymous]

Nope. Still don't feel safe in that neighborhood. Might be fine for before we have kids, but once we do we'd be counting the days until we could get out.

[Anonymous]

Lots of couples who want to have kids and stay in the city and want to be close to downtown are priced out of Capital Hill. So everything is pushed north to H St. The people who are buying homes in H St are young couples or couples with young children. Then throw in the single artsy type because H St is cool and not stuffy like Capital Hill and throw in the young single professionals. Then there are people who have lived there before the area gentrified. So it’s a diverse mixture of people.

The commercial corridor to H St is 11 blocks long and it’s not even fully developed yet. A number of new apartment/condo buildings with retail on the street level are going up. Union Station is going to be developed also with amenities. The area is blowing up and lots more amenities in the works with retail, restauarants, etc.. If you are thinking of buying, get in soon before all this happens for it will drive up prices more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you're a DINK with an $800K budget and you want space, go EOTR. You can get a detached house by the Benning Rd metro for half your budget.

$400K less on your mortgage is just shy of $2,000 a month in savings. You get more space, better transit access, and you can Uber to the same bars and restaurants on H St. in about 10 minutes except all your food and drinks are essentially free because you're saving so much on your house.

OP here - that's true but being by blocked by the river is not something I'm interested in. I want a neighborhood that's still central to D.C. and walking distance to downtown/the Mall.

That's why I'm not necessarily interested in the Wharf - its cut off by the highway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lots of couples who want to have kids and stay in the city and want to be close to downtown are priced out of Capital Hill. So everything is pushed north to H St. The people who are buying homes in H St are young couples or couples with young children. Then throw in the single artsy type because H St is cool and not stuffy like Capital Hill and throw in the young single professionals. Then there are people who have lived there before the area gentrified. So it’s a diverse mixture of people.

The commercial corridor to H St is 11 blocks long and it’s not even fully developed yet. A number of new apartment/condo buildings with retail on the street level are going up. Union Station is going to be developed also with amenities. The area is blowing up and lots more amenities in the works with retail, restauarants, etc.. If you are thinking of buying, get in soon before all this happens for it will drive up prices more.

Yes but you're still promising something that may or may not happen, at least in a reasonable time frame for some buyers. For DINKs I'd do H St all day, it's got everything you need. But you have to think of your needs down the road, especially since today's sales aren't likely to appreciate nearly as much as what we saw over the past 5-10 years. If you plan to raise kids, eventually you're not pushing some toddler in a stroller to a park and watching them the whole time. You might want a neighborhood where the kids can ride their bikes around, or get some friends together to play in the street. That's not H St, at least not yet.

[Anonymous]

800k condo on the far end of H street? You have to be out of your mind. Seriously. Buy a rowhouse in Shaw or Cap Hill for that budget.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:800k condo on the far end of H street? You have to be out of your mind. Seriously. Buy a rowhouse in Shaw or Cap Hill for that budget.

Getting a rowhouse on Capitol Hill for under $1M is almost impossible and it doesn't have anywhere near the amenities as H Street - high-end restaurants on a strip, Whole Foods and Trader Joes on the same street, awesome neighborhood stores.

I don't have any problem with CapHill I just don't see the features I see on H Street. And Eastern Market is nice - but the interior food/produce options are really disappointing and the exterior is mostly an arts & crafts fair.

Shaw is a possibility but I can get more for my money on H Street. Old 2-bedroom condos are going for $700K on average in Shaw and they're almost always less square feet. Brand news one start at $830K and go up to $1.7M. Again - minus a bedroom and not as nice fixtures to be perfectly frank.

http://perladc.com/floor-plans/#two-bedroom

[Anonymous]

Yes, I would. We bought in Bloomingdale 6+ years ago as dinks and a couple people told us it wasn't a good idea if we wanted kids soon. FF to now, we have a 2 yo and a baby and we love it here. And I'm SO glad we have 3 br so we're not feeling crowded out of the city like others that I know. Early education is pretty good in most DCPS as far as I can tell so we have a few more years before that's even a concern. Meanwhile, by the time we feel like we need to move we'll have a decade of appreciation on this house which is not insignificant in a neighborhood like this (and I would suspect H St.). One of the smartest decisions I ever made.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^and I lived six blocks east of Union Station in grad school, absolutely loved it, rarely felt unsafe. But 13th and H is too close to random crap for my liking. We have friends who live not far from there and the DW has been across the street from two random shootings not far apart. No, thanks.

OP Here - I'm curious if you think that is changing though as developers move 'up' H Street. Will they hop over to Benning too?

I know when I first moved to DC in 09 - no one in their right mind would buy on H Street. It was a fad place with a few restaurants that wouldn't last. Now? It's one of the best places to eat in all of D.C. with strong retail and grocery and real estate appreciation.

So that's part of why I'm considering it? And I can save $400,000 on a three-bedroom...

I bought a block off H in 2006. We’re still here, still happy, and have a house worth more than twice what we paid for it.

Bragging about home appreciation is like bragging about marriage for money. Yah burning trough it might be fun but you are missing the point. I rather live somewhere nice and lose money on a house.

Of course some will say they’re happy but strangely always caveat it with “don’t doubt us we made money”. No one in nice neighborhoods have to quantify that at least they made money living there. Your insecurities are more telling than your words

This makes no sense. Appreciation is literally the process of people deciding that the place is nice (or is becoming nice), that they want to live there, and that they are willing to pay more to live there. Hate to break it to you, but if prices are declining where you live, it's because more people are deciding that they would rather live somewhere else. Probably somewhere more like H street, in fact. You should live where you're happy, but what's wrong with saying "I like this place, and clearly other people do too!"

Is H street perfect? No. But H Street now is nicer than 14th St NW or 9th or 7th were a decade ago, easily. It has all the same great potential as those places, if not more because of the feasibility of major redevelopments nearby like Union Market. The rowhouse neighborhoods surrounding it are arguably even better, with more small yards than you'll find elsewhere in the Old City, and with houses that are well-sized for small families and not so large as to be subdivided into units. And, as a result, it (in my experience) maintains a great "neighborhood" feel, with lots of people who have set or are setting down longer-term roots.

This isn’t true, appreciation can stand for many factors. Rebaselining of the currency, influx of money chasing homes, increase access to credit, increases to population. More desreable areas being priced out of reach to comparable demographics or simply an across the board increase in demand across all niches.

Expensive does not always equal more desirable and it absolutely doesn’t always mean nicer. It only means more expensive

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^and I lived six blocks east of Union Station in grad school, absolutely loved it, rarely felt unsafe. But 13th and H is too close to random crap for my liking. We have friends who live not far from there and the DW has been across the street from two random shootings not far apart. No, thanks.

OP Here - I'm curious if you think that is changing though as developers move 'up' H Street. Will they hop over to Benning too?

I know when I first moved to DC in 09 - no one in their right mind would buy on H Street. It was a fad place with a few restaurants that wouldn't last. Now? It's one of the best places to eat in all of D.C. with strong retail and grocery and real estate appreciation.

So that's part of why I'm considering it? And I can save $400,000 on a three-bedroom...

I bought a block off H in 2006. We’re still here, still happy, and have a house worth more than twice what we paid for it.

Bragging about home appreciation is like bragging about marriage for money. Yah burning trough it might be fun but you are missing the point. I rather live somewhere nice and lose money on a house.

Of course some will say they’re happy but strangely always caveat it with “don’t doubt us we made money”. No one in nice neighborhoods have to quantify that at least they made money living there. Your insecurities are more telling than your words

This makes no sense. Appreciation is literally the process of people deciding that the place is nice (or is becoming nice), that they want to live there, and that they are willing to pay more to live there. Hate to break it to you, but if prices are declining where you live, it's because more people are deciding that they would rather live somewhere else. Probably somewhere more like H street, in fact. You should live where you're happy, but what's wrong with saying "I like this place, and clearly other people do too!"

Is H street perfect? No. But H Street now is nicer than 14th St NW or 9th or 7th were a decade ago, easily. It has all the same great potential as those places, if not more because of the feasibility of major redevelopments nearby like Union Market. The rowhouse neighborhoods surrounding it are arguably even better, with more small yards than you'll find elsewhere in the Old City, and with houses that are well-sized for small families and not so large as to be subdivided into units. And, as a result, it (in my experience) maintains a great "neighborhood" feel, with lots of people who have set or are setting down longer-term roots.

This isn’t true, appreciation can stand for many factors. Rebaselining of the currency, influx of money chasing homes, increase access to credit, increases to population. More desreable areas being priced out of reach to comparable demographics or simply an across the board increase in demand across all niches.

Expensive does not always equal more desirable and it absolutely doesn’t always mean nicer. It only means more expensive

Oh c'mon, this is just being pedantic. Clearly the statement was in reference to relative appreciation of comparable housing within a metro area, which isn't meaningfully affected by things like currency appreciation or access to credit. Prices around H Street have gone up much faster than have many plausible alternatives, and this is because more people find the area more desirable. Does anyone seriously dispute this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^and I lived six blocks east of Union Station in grad school, absolutely loved it, rarely felt unsafe. But 13th and H is too close to random crap for my liking. We have friends who live not far from there and the DW has been across the street from two random shootings not far apart. No, thanks.

OP Here - I'm curious if you think that is changing though as developers move 'up' H Street. Will they hop over to Benning too?

I know when I first moved to DC in 09 - no one in their right mind would buy on H Street. It was a fad place with a few restaurants that wouldn't last. Now? It's one of the best places to eat in all of D.C. with strong retail and grocery and real estate appreciation.

So that's part of why I'm considering it? And I can save $400,000 on a three-bedroom...

I bought a block off H in 2006. We’re still here, still happy, and have a house worth more than twice what we paid for it.

Bragging about home appreciation is like bragging about marriage for money. Yah burning trough it might be fun but you are missing the point. I rather live somewhere nice and lose money on a house.

Of course some will say they’re happy but strangely always caveat it with “don’t doubt us we made money”. No one in nice neighborhoods have to quantify that at least they made money living there. Your insecurities are more telling than your words

This makes no sense. Appreciation is literally the process of people deciding that the place is nice (or is becoming nice), that they want to live there, and that they are willing to pay more to live there. Hate to break it to you, but if prices are declining where you live, it's because more people are deciding that they would rather live somewhere else. Probably somewhere more like H street, in fact. You should live where you're happy, but what's wrong with saying "I like this place, and clearly other people do too!"

Is H street perfect? No. But H Street now is nicer than 14th St NW or 9th or 7th were a decade ago, easily. It has all the same great potential as those places, if not more because of the feasibility of major redevelopments nearby like Union Market. The rowhouse neighborhoods surrounding it are arguably even better, with more small yards than you'll find elsewhere in the Old City, and with houses that are well-sized for small families and not so large as to be subdivided into units. And, as a result, it (in my experience) maintains a great "neighborhood" feel, with lots of people who have set or are setting down longer-term roots.

This isn’t true, appreciation can stand for many factors. Rebaselining of the currency, influx of money chasing homes, increase access to credit, increases to population. More desreable areas being priced out of reach to comparable demographics or simply an across the board increase in demand across all niches.

Expensive does not always equal more desirable and it absolutely doesn’t always mean nicer. It only means more expensive

Oh c'mon, this is just being pedantic. Clearly the statement was in reference to relative appreciation of comparable housing within a metro area, which isn't meaningfully affected by things like currency appreciation or access to credit. Prices around H Street have gone up much faster than have many plausible alternatives, and this is because more people find the area more desirable. Does anyone seriously dispute this?

There are lots of areas in dc that have seen bigger gains

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have lived in ::gasp:: Carver/Langston for over 5 years.. There are actually lots of DINK gentrifiers here, and a surprising number of kids running around. So yes, development will continue to push down H Street and Benning/Bladensburg, slow but steady. If you drive through you will see just how much is under construction.

All this to say: buying at H and 13 is a good bet. Things aren't perfect but they will continue to improve.

I think there's a difference between a quiet residential street in Carver Langston, and being right on top of the starburst at 14th and H.

[Anonymous]

No. Remember ten years ago when people thought Columbia Heights was getting so much “better”? Yeah, that neighborhood is still a crap hole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. Remember ten years ago when people thought Columbia Heights was getting so much “better”? Yeah, that neighborhood is still a crap hole.

Experience wise - correct.

Finance wise - I could have bought a rowhouse off 14th in 2009 Columbia Heights for $700,000. Even then the group homes were charging $700-$800 per room. Now those same homes are worth north of $1M and the rooms are going for $900-$1,100 per room.

A good investment any way you look at it, as long as you don't have to live there.