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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Seeing all these tiny row homes going for 800+ makes condo living look more appealing. The problem is that even moderately sized condos (@1000 sq ft, 2 bed, 2 bath) can cost 700-900k on the Hill, because most of the new condos being built are high end. I feel like there's a huge market for 2 bedroom condos for under 600k, but that's virtually impossible to find at this point unless you are talking about an older building (which may not even have central air or the ability to put washer/dryers in units because of the ventilation issues). You can find them in Trinidad but even that is shifting, and in order to get something more affordable, you have to buy a ground level unit or something in the worst part of the neighborhood or something tiny.

I know no one wants to hear this, but I wish they'd build more midsize condo buildings with low fees and minimal amenities. Yes, I'd prefer a row home. But I value being in this neighborhood more than I value owning a SFH, so if I can't afford one, I can't afford one. But it would be nice, for those of us willing to make the compromise in order to stick around for the proximity, the neighborhood feel, and the schools, if there was an affordably priced option. Instead, I feel like people like me will just be priced out until it's not possible to live here unless you are very wealthy, which will actually fundamentally change the neighborhood a lot more than just building out some of the main thoroughfares with multifamily housing would.[/quote]

At the same time, though, if you're in the market for a Capitol Hill home and have the financial means, why on earth would you choose a condo when you could pay the same price for a similarly sized rowhouse with at least some outdoor space, no neighbors above and below you, and zero ridiculous condo fees? When we were in the market for our first home as a married couple in like 2008, we thought for sure we were going to be living in a chopped-up rowhouse condo until we saw a comparatively priced two-bedroom rowhouse on Pickford Place NE (which has been mentioned in this thread). After that, the choice was clear.

I feel like there are so many of these small rowhouses on CH that it's not worth it for developers to build condos apart from the luxury buildings directly on H Street. There's too much competition in the neighborhood. But yeah, it also makes these small houses ever more expensive.[/quote]

I mean, you are kind of answering your own question -- those tiny row homes are now more expensive than condos. If your option is an 800 sq ft row home with proportions that are almost unlivable if you have a kid (like a teeny tiny second bedroom, a first floor so narrow you can't have even a small dining table, no outdoor space or parking, etc) or a less expensive 1200 ft condo that is much more livable and where you might actually be able to have a kid or two, then why choose the tiny house? Often condos are more livable even when their square footage is similar because if it's all one level, you don't have to accommodate stairs, and usually the really narrow row homes don't get chopped up, so you have more width to work with.

And the choice is moot if you can't afford the row house. It actually is possible to get a condo on CH for 500-600k, often with more square footage than one of these tiny houses, sometimes with other features like a patio, a decent sized deck, or parking. Basically, if you want to stay in the neighborhood and you want to own, lots of people have simply been priced out of even the smaller row homes and condos are the only available option. You can always move to another neighborhood to get the row home if that's important to you... but that's another neighborhood with a different cost/benefit analysis. Many of us really, really want to stay in CH and are willing to make some compromises. But "paying an extra 300k over my budget" is not really available to me. Condo living is.[/quote]

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