Are these H St. NE / Capitol Hill houses priced appropriately?

[Anonymous]

I bet this will be pending after the open house today. I'm going with selling for over 100k than asking. I like the house but the lack of backyard is rough.

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/505-6th-St-NE-20002/home/9898771

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I bet this will be pending after the open house today. I'm going with selling for over 100k than asking. I like the house but the lack of backyard is rough.

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/505-6th-St-NE-20002/home/9898771

There doesn't seem to be a walk out basement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I bet this will be pending after the open house today. I'm going with selling for over 100k than asking. I like the house but the lack of backyard is rough.

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/505-6th-St-NE-20002/home/9898771

It does seem to be priced about right for the square footage in Capitol Hill. I like that location, too. The postage stamp back patio is an issue, but otherwise I don't see anything that will stop this from going for $1.2M or so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I bet this will be pending after the open house today. I'm going with selling for over 100k than asking. I like the house but the lack of backyard is rough.

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/505-6th-St-NE-20002/home/9898771

Doesn't affect the house that much but one of my pet peeves is tiny sinks in a row house half bath where you can barely get your hands in there. The half bath on the first floor has a tiny sink and I understand for some row houses there is not any space to have anything bigger, but that one literally has a foot on the left side of the sink where the soap is. Ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Thoughts on this one?

4BR/3BA, 1814sf, $990,000:
https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/403-6th-St-NE-20002/home/9899007

The location is great, but it's kind of an odd mix of original features and ill-chosen updates. I don't think I've seen a rowhouse that has both original unpainted woodwork still intact but also has that stupid oval door. It looks like they replaced the hardwood floors at some point, the kitchen and baths look dated (and not in a vintage way), and there's so much carpet.

I can't decide if the interior will be too off-putting or if someone will see its problems as easily fixable.

[Anonymous]

Looks like a formal rental house. The bathrooms seem livable for now, but the rest of the house likely would need 140k worth of updates to flooring, new kitchen etc. Seems in the neighborhood for that location though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thoughts on this one?

4BR/3BA, 1814sf, $990,000:
https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/403-6th-St-NE-20002/home/9899007

The location is great, but it's kind of an odd mix of original features and ill-chosen updates. I don't think I've seen a rowhouse that has both original unpainted woodwork still intact but also has that stupid oval door. It looks like they replaced the hardwood floors at some point, the kitchen and baths look dated (and not in a vintage way), and there's so much carpet.

I can't decide if the interior will be too off-putting or if someone will see its problems as easily fixable.

Stuff like this makes me really sad. When we were first looking to buy in the neighborhood, this house was exactly what we wanted -- needs work, great bones, great location. You could easily live in this house as is, but then we'd obviously want to do a renovation, but maybe over time to spread the cost out. We were looking in 2011 and our budget was 500k and something like this was out of reach -- it would have sold for closer to 600 back then, maybe more depending on square footage.

Anyway, it's 10 years later and we could afford 600 now but not $1million. Even if we sold our condo, which is what we wound up buying after losing out on like 14 row homes, it hasn't appreciated enough to buy a house that costs twice what we paid for the condo a decade ago. We have more savings and higher incomes but also a kid, so our willingness to renovate over time is a bit lower and our budget has to cover more things.

Anyway, this house is just a perfect example of what has happened in the neighborhood over the last decade and the reason there's no way we'll be able to stay long term unless we can figure out how to stay in our condo as our kid gets older. Not saying this is a tragedy, I'm sure no one feels sorry for us and I don't expect them to. But to see prices nearly double in the last decade and realize that we simply do not have the resources to stick around in a neighborhood we've made our home for going on 15 years is disheartening. I wish we'd been able to get one of the row homes we bid on, and maybe we'd be in a better spot, but we had a limited down payment and no escalation clause, and real estate was plenty competitive back then, too.

Oh well. I'm sure someone will be happy there. Not us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thoughts on this one?

4BR/3BA, 1814sf, $990,000:
https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/403-6th-St-NE-20002/home/9899007

The location is great, but it's kind of an odd mix of original features and ill-chosen updates. I don't think I've seen a rowhouse that has both original unpainted woodwork still intact but also has that stupid oval door. It looks like they replaced the hardwood floors at some point, the kitchen and baths look dated (and not in a vintage way), and there's so much carpet.

I can't decide if the interior will be too off-putting or if someone will see its problems as easily fixable.

Hideous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is some peak stubbornness on that price, seeing as how it hasn't budged despite the now-stale listing giving off all sorts of warning signs.

It was last sold in 1970, so I'm guessing it may be an estate situation. Even if not, it's almost certainly paid off, so it's not like keeping it on the market is costing the sellers anything other than utilities and taxes. The sellers probably think that this is a gorgeous house and that someone will surely come along any time to make an offer over asking.

Price drop to $750k. How embarrassing.
https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/1335-Emerald-St-NE-20002/home/9912879

Meanwhile, a block away, you have this option. Nice porch, nice patio, some curious interior choices. Are those acoustic tiles on the ceiling?
https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/525-Tennessee-Ave-NE-20002/home/9916215

And here's a throwback from last summer. Still struggling to be sold, still not dropping its price enough (if memory serves me well, the original list price was close to 1M) for condition, location, and size. As with Emerald, it might have been bid up considerably if it had originally been listed at $699k, but now the stink of stale listing can't be undone.
https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/1106-8th-St-NE-20002/home/9900826

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thoughts on this one?

4BR/3BA, 1814sf, $990,000:
https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/403-6th-St-NE-20002/home/9899007

The location is great, but it's kind of an odd mix of original features and ill-chosen updates. I don't think I've seen a rowhouse that has both original unpainted woodwork still intact but also has that stupid oval door. It looks like they replaced the hardwood floors at some point, the kitchen and baths look dated (and not in a vintage way), and there's so much carpet.

I can't decide if the interior will be too off-putting or if someone will see its problems as easily fixable.

Stuff like this makes me really sad. When we were first looking to buy in the neighborhood, this house was exactly what we wanted -- needs work, great bones, great location. You could easily live in this house as is, but then we'd obviously want to do a renovation, but maybe over time to spread the cost out. We were looking in 2011 and our budget was 500k and something like this was out of reach -- it would have sold for closer to 600 back then, maybe more depending on square footage.

Anyway, it's 10 years later and we could afford 600 now but not $1million. Even if we sold our condo, which is what we wound up buying after losing out on like 14 row homes, it hasn't appreciated enough to buy a house that costs twice what we paid for the condo a decade ago. We have more savings and higher incomes but also a kid, so our willingness to renovate over time is a bit lower and our budget has to cover more things.

Anyway, this house is just a perfect example of what has happened in the neighborhood over the last decade and the reason there's no way we'll be able to stay long term unless we can figure out how to stay in our condo as our kid gets older. Not saying this is a tragedy, I'm sure no one feels sorry for us and I don't expect them to. But to see prices nearly double in the last decade and realize that we simply do not have the resources to stick around in a neighborhood we've made our home for going on 15 years is disheartening. I wish we'd been able to get one of the row homes we bid on, and maybe we'd be in a better spot, but we had a limited down payment and no escalation clause, and real estate was plenty competitive back then, too.

Oh well. I'm sure someone will be happy there. Not us.

Yes. We bought about 15 years ago. We're well-paid Feds who had some equity from a condo, so were able to buy a nice but slightly dated house a 10-minute walk from the Capitol for around $600,000. Not only have prices skyrocketed for the same types of houses, but many have had high-end renovations that further push up the prices. It had already been a neighborhood for the upper-middle class, but now it's getting out of reach for everyone but the upper-upper middle class - big-firm lawyers, doctors, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Meanwhile, a block away, you have this option. Nice porch, nice patio, some curious interior choices. Are those acoustic tiles on the ceiling?
https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/525-Tennessee-Ave-NE-20002/home/9916215

Yup, that sure looks like acoustic tiles. Odd, because the rest of the house seems reasonably well done—a bit dated in spots, but otherwise nothing horrible. Acoustic tiled ceilings usually seem to show up in houses that clearly haven't been updated in decades. Weird to see them here, in what looks to have been updated fairly recently. (Okay, so that track lighting probably isn't from this century.)

Still, this looks pretty nice in the listing, and $875k is a good asking price for 1684 sf with a basement—although that seemingly reasonable price might just reflect that it's a bit far east and zoned for Miner. But I'd expect it to go pending any moment now and sell for over list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meanwhile, a block away, you have this option. Nice porch, nice patio, some curious interior choices. Are those acoustic tiles on the ceiling?
https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/525-Tennessee-Ave-NE-20002/home/9916215

Yup, that sure looks like acoustic tiles. Odd, because the rest of the house seems reasonably well done—a bit dated in spots, but otherwise nothing horrible. Acoustic tiled ceilings usually seem to show up in houses that clearly haven't been updated in decades. Weird to see them here, in what looks to have been updated fairly recently. (Okay, so that track lighting probably isn't from this century.)

Still, this looks pretty nice in the listing, and $875k is a good asking price for 1684 sf with a basement—although that seemingly reasonable price might just reflect that it's a bit far east and zoned for Miner. But I'd expect it to go pending any moment now and sell for over list.

Agree. I predict 925k and the buyers will feel like they got a deal! It’s a nice looking house and Tennessee is a nice street.

[Anonymous]

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/624-19th-St-NE-20002/home/10113609

Predictions on this one? Offer deadline is tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/624-19th-St-NE-20002/home/10113609

Predictions on this one? Offer deadline is tomorrow.

I really have no feel for Kingman Park pricing (and this is definitely KP, despite the agent's attempt to describe this as a "Beautifully maintained Capitol Hill charmer"). The interior is...fine? Looks a bit generic and/or flippish for my tastes, but plenty of other people will like it. So it's all about size and location: 1,188 sf is kind of small, especially for a 3BR. That might be decent condo-alternative pricing, but it's not particularly close to the Metro. So I think this will sell, but KP isn't as hot as Capitol Hill and I don't think this will get that much over asking. But like I said, I really don't know KP and could be totally wrong about that.

[Anonymous]

Who designed that kitchen? An island would have been so much more functional than a dead-end galley...