Would you buy on H Street?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a DINK would you buy on H Street? There are a lot of condos available and relatively cheap (compared to U Street or Shaw or Logan Circle or Dupont).

I'm finding 3 bedrooms for less than the price of a much smaller 2 bedroom in my current neighborhood. o.O

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1301-H-St-NE-PH-7-Washington-DC-20002/2085949120_zpid/

I moved from U street to H street and don't regret it at all.

[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.

Lol, that's not enough for a 3br rowhouse in either of those neighborhoods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m surprised to see comments that it’s only for DINKs. We live north of H, closer to Union Station, with a mid-elementary child and a preschooler and we definitely aren’t the only family nearby. Most of the older kids attend charters, but if our oldest were starting school now, we would be fine attending the local elementary.

We are one block south of H and we were the first people with kids on our block 12 years ago. Now there are 12 more. The area from union station out to 14th, up to Florida and down to east cap is crawling with kids, whether or not it is called the Hill.

Agreed -- we consider this area the most elementary aged, kid friendly part of the city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live 3 blocks north of H St and love it. There’s so much excitement and energy on H St.

The amenities are great with all the restaurants, bars, cafe, theaters. The trolley is free and a fun ride to Union Station. There are 6, yes 6, grocery stores in the area including a Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. In other neighborhoods in the city, you are lucky to have 1, at best 2.
Solid State books is a great neighborhood bookstore and always has cool events going on.

I first lived here with 2 girlfriends in a row house when single. I loved it so much that I stayed when I got married. Now we have a toddler and plan on raising him here. There are lots of young single people here but also families with young children who would never flee to live in the burbs. The elementary schools are getting better and better.

Union Market is great and has lots of events. That whole area is going to be developed in the next 3-5 years so I predict housing prices will continue to rise. H St is only about 60% developed so lots of potential for more things which will be coming sooner rather than later. Eventually, prices will rise to those of NW.

Ha! It is already there. Plenty of TH are more expensive $/sf than NW. NW is car bound and status obsessed, enjoy H St, it's lovely!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Lol, that's not enough for a 3br rowhouse in either of those neighborhoods.

Seriously. But there are tiny homes in NW (very limited stock) for that pricepoint. Just saying.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
Actually, the new steps from L'Enfant promenade make the Wharf much more directly connected to the Mall. But 3 Bedrooms at the Wharf aren't in your budget. Over in the older parts of SW, nearer waterfront metro they sometimes are, though, and it is a nice neighborhood - lots of grassy setbacks, trees, and you can, indeed, walk to the mall - it's about a 15 min walk from Waterfront metro to Air & Space. And the new restaurants and music venues at the wharf are fun.

[quote=Anonymous][quote=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.[/quote]

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. [/quote][/quote]

13th and H is 2 miles from the Mall and 2.5 from downtown DC. I think you're severely overestimating how often you'll be walking to either one of those from H St., plus unless you're a speedwalker living by any of the EOTR metro stations would get you there faster. (And drier in bad weather)

Also, you must really, really like walking. Assuming you make that walk 5 times a week you're paying $100 per walk in extra mortgage payments!

[/quote]

We lived on 12th and MD, and walked to the mall every weekend with nice weather. National Gallery, Hirshorn, American Indian.... Granted with young kids, after walking around in the museum, we usually uber back. With a stroller, no biggie! But toddlers def tire out those little legs.

But for real, get some exercise! Try it sometime. Walking is great for you.

[Anonymous]

^ As for the wharf and being "cut off" by the highway, I have lived in SW for about 9 years and love it here. It's not just the Wharf. Or, Navy Yard. There is a huge amount of new residential development going on in between those two areas - pretty much the whole stretch of M between the Wharf and South Capitol is spoken for in terms of development, and there is also a lot of stuff that will be happening around the new DC United stadium, Buzzard's Point et cetera in the next 3-5 years.

[Anonymous]

Forget a condo OP, but this place

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/415-23rd-Pl-NE-20002/home/10113104

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

There is a a Trader Joe’s literally across the street from Eastern Market and Capitol Hill has its own Whole Foods south of Garfield Park. Far more restaurants than H Street and better retail (game store, kitchen store, two bookstores). More metro accessible. H St is great and yes it is definitely cheaper but it does not have more amenities than the Hill.

[Anonymous]

And H St has more “high end restaurants”? Capitol Hill has all three Aaron Silverman restaurants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

There is a a Trader Joe’s literally across the street from Eastern Market and Capitol Hill has its own Whole Foods south of Garfield Park. Far more restaurants than H Street and better retail (game store, kitchen store, two bookstores). More metro accessible. H St is great and yes it is definitely cheaper but it does not have more amenities than the Hill.

H Street has a great bookstore and Union Market (so just north of H) has another. I’m not saying the Hill isn’t great—I consider it all part of my neighborhood—but H Street and Union Market together have at least as much good retail as the Eastern Market/Barracks Row version of the Hill.

[Anonymous]

H St isn’t the Hill and Union Market isn’t H St.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:H St isn’t the Hill and Union Market isn’t H St.

And the Whole Foods in SE is farther from Eastern Market than Union Market is from the heart of H Street. So what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:H St isn’t the Hill and Union Market isn’t H St.

H St is more the Hill than the Whole Foods in Navy Yard is. Obviously both are close enough to count as neighborhood amenities anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:H St isn’t the Hill and Union Market isn’t H St.

Ok, well there are those of us who live within a 10 minute walk of both Politics and Prose and Solid State. Plus all of the Union Market shops and restaurants, nearly all of H Street, etc. Call it whatever you want, I think that still competes with the Eastern Market area just fine.