Real estate prices in DC

[Anonymous]

Hi, was reading thread about better pricing in CC/Bethesda. What about DC? I'm not seeing much of a drop. Is it just going to take longer?

[Anonymous]

Depends on which part of DC you are talking about. Places like Georgetown/Palisades, Dupont/Foggy Bottom, Penn Quarter/Gallery Place, I don't think it's going to go any lower than it is now. In fact, prices have been slowly going up.

[Anonymous]

PP, if all the surrounding areas are going down in price,wouldn't these areas also be affected, albeit not as much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, if all the surrounding areas are going down in price,wouldn't these areas also be affected, albeit not as much?

They are, people are just in denial. I live in Georgetown and paid an embarrassing amount for my home 4 years ago. It would NOT command the same price today. Many of my neighbors and friends will just not admit that their expensive properties have lost value, even though proof is in the numbers-maybe it is just the arrogant nature of the rich to want to feel charmed in every way? No, these communities have not been hit as hard as say the far out burbs, but some of us are still looking at being a few hundred thousand underwater on our homes. Houses are selling, but it is houses that are priced very well. When we bought an overpriced home still got multiple offers. Now overpriced homes sit and collect dust.

[Anonymous]

I don't think they are in denial, but the prices in the city aren't as elastic as those, say, in Rockville, or to some extent, Bethesda. Of course places in the center of the city are going to have market price fluctuations. But you won't see the huge wide swings in price (in terms of percentage of original purchase price), that you would in the suburbs. That's just the nature of the beast.

[Anonymous]

Not in denial here. COmparable homes to ours in Woodley Park have gone for the same price that we paid, often within a week or so. The home prices are the same or higher than in the past two years, albeit with only a 1-2% increase, where it had been increasing 10%/year for the prior 10 years.

We joke that our street is it's own biosphere separate from the rest of the economy.

The only ones that have gone down as far as we can tell are the big homes over $1M. Still, a $1.3M white elephant that needed a ton of work went in one week for list price, so even there, not much of a sag.

That said, our lovely Dupont condo fetched about $25k less than we think it would have a year earlier. That neighborhood went out of control pricewise, and the condo market flattens first.

It's also supply and demand. Woodley Park has only a few streets of rowhouses within the Oyster district and walkable to metro, so if you have those as criteria there are 1, maybe two homes available at any time, and you have to pay.

[Anonymous]

Yes, we live in AU Park and I'm not seeing much of a drop in prices - perhaps 3-5% (30-50K) off the peak prices, but no super bargains.

[Anonymous]

I'm a real estate junkie, and the closer-in areas just don't seem to have come down much in the lower and middle-range houses. I've been seeing lower prices in slightly farther-out areas like Silver Spring, Alexandria and much of Fairfax, and I've heard the outer areas have gotten hit really hard. (Personally, I'm in close-in Fairfax and my house has dropped by about $100K in the last year, which really hurts since I'd hoped to sell soon.) The really good school districts don't seem to have been affected much.

I think the condo market will probably be problematic - there are an awful lot of very similar condos built in a very short period of time for very high prices, so I suspect resale is going to be tough for awhile. I used to work for a developer, and at the land prices they paid for desirable, close-in properties, there's often not a lot of wiggle room on the prices they can charge.

[Anonymous]

OP here again. Does anyone know if there are any good deals on foreclosed homes in NW DC? Website listings apart from mls?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here again. Does anyone know if there are any good deals on foreclosed homes in NW DC? Website listings apart from mls?

There was a good article about this in the Northwest Current this week. They quoted a couple of realtors who know how to find these deals. One was Carlos Garcia at Eng Garcia; he sounded very knowledgeable about the topic.

[Anonymous]

But I really don't think you're going to get a really good deal on foreclosures in upper NW, if that is where you're looking. You may pay less because the property is in poor condition, but anything in a good location that can be rehabbed or is a great tear down potential will get multiple offers and may go for over asking.

[Anonymous]

Wait until late summer/ early fall. Everyone puts their homes on the market in the spring. Some need to sell and other sellers may be simply to look if they can sell and if not will take them off the market. The ones still on the market in the fall will come down and represent sellers that do need to sell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the condo market will probably be problematic - there are an awful lot of very similar condos built in a very short period of time for very high prices, so I suspect resale is going to be tough for awhile. I used to work for a developer, and at the land prices they paid for desirable, close-in properties, there's often not a lot of wiggle room on the prices they can charge.

I think you are on the money with this comment. The single-family homes and townhouses will still command a pretty decent price within a somewhat narrow price band regardless of its location in DC. The price of condos, particularly 1BRs, will probably be all over the place. We've already kind of seen this in Arlington and I think prices there are starting to stabilize. It's common to see bidding wars for condos in Courthouse these days, just like the old days (but they don't sell for ridiculous amounts like they used to). There is a huge glut of condos around Mount Vernon Triangle and Logan Circle. This summer is going to be an interesting time for those trying to sell units in that area. I think a lot of people are curious as to what they will sell for.

[Anonymous]

But I really don't think you're going to get a really good deal on foreclosures in upper NW, if that is where you're looking. You may pay less because the property is in poor condition, but anything in a good location that can be rehabbed or is a great tear down potential will get multiple offers and may go for over asking.

Here's why -- in Upper NW (20015, 20016, 20008 ), there aren't any SFH foreclosures. OK, there may be one every several months, but there's not a foreclosure-N-short sale market. This is not the demographic that needs to sell in a hurry or feels panic because of being underwater on paper. They're big homes that have either been owned for decade(s) (ie, 20008 ) OR purchased somewhat more recently by high-income couples who have assets they can draw from if they're feeling skeevy because the Zillow price today is less than they paid 3 years ago. Or if John didn't get his bonus this year. That is, people who actually had enough income to buy there in the first place and continue to have enough income/assets to pay the mortgage. Somewhat the opposite of much of Prince William County, which I understand to have the highest rate of foreclosures in the metro area.

And the random "poor condition" houses in these zipcodes -- and there aren't many left anymore after the real estate boom, btw -- aren't foreclosures. They're the homes that have been owned either by the same 82-yr-old couple for 50 yrs with no mortgage, OR, owned by an out-of-state investor, also for decades.

I can't speak to 20011, parts of which are usually considered upper NW.