Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happened to the cash buyers?

A lot of those folks weren’t really “cash” buyers. They may not have had a financing contingency, but they were getting mortgages. Some were borrowing via lines of credit against brokerage accounts and getting mortgages for the long term. Rising interest rates and the drop in the stock market has impacted these buyers.

DP but that's a useful point. I had been wondering about the cash buyers as well -- this must be especially relevant for the 900k+ price point, where buyers are more likely to have access to that kind of financing. I've always wondered a bit where people are getting a million (or more) in liquid cash. Most people's finances are not structured in a way to make that a simple thing to produce, even if you are high income and high asset.

Anonymous wrote:What happened to the cash buyers?

A lot of those folks weren’t really “cash” buyers. They may not have had a financing contingency, but they were getting mortgages. Some were borrowing via lines of credit against brokerage accounts and getting mortgages for the long term. Rising interest rates and the drop in the stock market has impacted these buyers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let’s play “Why aren’t these homes selling” All north of H and under $1 million.

1. https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/905-K-St-NE-20002/home/9903999

2. https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/241-K-St-NE-20002/home/9890845

3. https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/1316-I-St-NE-20002/home/9912374

4. https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/921-L-St-NE-20002/home/9903904

5. https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/914-Kent-Pl-NE-20002/home/9903862

For 1 property I have my suspicions as to why it’s struggled to sell, but a few seem like good bargains for the area.

Updating these
#1 - listing pulled
#2 - still for sale with $50K price decrease
#3 - still for sale
#4 - now for rent
#5 - sold for $105K under listing price

The last listing appeared to be longtime owners who I presume just wanted to sell quickly and were not as concerned with maximizing their profit. There are still quite a few homeowners in this situation in the city. It will be interesting to see what kind of impact they have on prices over the next year.

241 K is a beautiful home, really well done. But being next to the Indian restaurant is a liability. Having the restaurant in the neighborhood, great for the property values of the surrounding blocks. Sharing a wall, not so much. Plus, the future land use plan for that block is for all of the houses to be torn down and converted into mixed-use developments. You don't want to be the last person holding out while the developers swoop in and destroy the community around you.

Call me crazy, but it seems like this could be a plus and makes the property more appealing? I would not want the house next to the restaurant with the noisy patio either BUT if I could by it in that location for less than 800k with the expectation that developers are going to swoop in and buy me out within the next 5-10 years, maybe it's worth it? Large scale developers often pay above market because it's the only way to get people to give up their homes, and their profit margins on large projects can absorb those costs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let’s play “Why aren’t these homes selling” All north of H and under $1 million.

1. https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/905-K-St-NE-20002/home/9903999

2. https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/241-K-St-NE-20002/home/9890845

3. https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/1316-I-St-NE-20002/home/9912374

4. https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/921-L-St-NE-20002/home/9903904

5. https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/914-Kent-Pl-NE-20002/home/9903862

For 1 property I have my suspicions as to why it’s struggled to sell, but a few seem like good bargains for the area.

Updating these
#1 - listing pulled
#2 - still for sale with $50K price decrease
#3 - still for sale
#4 - now for rent
#5 - sold for $105K under listing price

The last listing appeared to be longtime owners who I presume just wanted to sell quickly and were not as concerned with maximizing their profit. There are still quite a few homeowners in this situation in the city. It will be interesting to see what kind of impact they have on prices over the next year.

241 K is a beautiful home, really well done. But being next to the Indian restaurant is a liability. Having the restaurant in the neighborhood, great for the property values of the surrounding blocks. Sharing a wall, not so much. Plus, the future land use plan for that block is for all of the houses to be torn down and converted into mixed-use developments. You don't want to be the last person holding out while the developers swoop in and destroy the community around you.

Anonymous wrote:Let’s play “Why aren’t these homes selling” All north of H and under $1 million.

1. https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/905-K-St-NE-20002/home/9903999

2. https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/241-K-St-NE-20002/home/9890845

3. https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/1316-I-St-NE-20002/home/9912374

4. https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/921-L-St-NE-20002/home/9903904

5. https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/914-Kent-Pl-NE-20002/home/9903862

For 1 property I have my suspicions as to why it’s struggled to sell, but a few seem like good bargains for the area.

Updating these
#1 - listing pulled
#2 - still for sale with $50K price decrease
#3 - still for sale
#4 - now for rent
#5 - sold for $105K under listing price

The last listing appeared to be longtime owners who I presume just wanted to sell quickly and were not as concerned with maximizing their profit. There are still quite a few homeowners in this situation in the city. It will be interesting to see what kind of impact they have on prices over the next year.

What happened to the cash buyers?

I know a number of sellers who chose to pull their houses off the market and rent instead, after seeing how soft the market was. They all had renters within a couple weeks. I'll be curious how this works out down the road -- if they decide to rent longterm or try the market again next year or the year after. If rent covers your mortgage and some extra for maintenance (which it likely will based on rents I've seen), you can carry the market pretty easily. But most people need equity from their home to buy another, especially with rates as high as they are. I wonder what next year is going to look like as some of these owners maybe come back on the market all at once, plus the usual churn. Unless rates come back down to what they were early 2022 (which I don't think will happen), I think prices are going to stay lower for a bit.

Rental market is doing good so sellers have an alternative option.

A- Buyers think they should wait for interest rates or prices to go down.

B- Sellers think they should wait for interest rates to go down because they don't want to compromise on price.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure what the realtor is thinking with all the photos of moving boxes and messy rooms, but here's an unrenovated, tenant-occupied 4/3.5 on G between 6th and 7th.

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/622-G-St-NE-20002/home/9898467

$1.35 for 3/2.5 pretty close to Union Station on F Street, with English basement apt. that has a C of O.

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/226-F-St-NE-20002/home/9891037

622 G finally sold for $925k—$125k below list. 226 F is still on the market.

It does seem like the Capitol Hill market has softened quite a bit over the past month. For a while there, it seemed like you couldn't get anything over 2,000 sf for under $1.1M. But now there are houses sitting at that size & price. I think we've discussed these before, for example:

3BR/2.5BA, 2166 sf, $1.1M (listed 5/13):
https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/403-11th-St-NE-20002/home/9908314

2BR/2BA, 2516 sf, $950k (listed 5/3):
https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/1018-F-St-NE-20002/home/9906175

403 11th St NE is now listed for rent for $3800: https://yarmouthm.com/listing/403-11th-st-ne/

Similarly, 611 12 st NE which was originally listed for $879,000 leasing for $3800: https://yarmouthm.com/listing/611-12th-st-ne/

What does it all mean?!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:P.s.: we prefer something closer to 3,500 sf.

You won’t find 3500 SF on Capitol Hill, you need to be checking the suburbs or far NW

Not true.

Your patience will pay off big time, in terms of living and when selling.

Correction—last 6 months…

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:P.s.: we prefer something closer to 3,500 sf.

You won’t find 3500 SF on Capitol Hill, you need to be checking the suburbs or far NW

Not true.

For example, here are two from the last two months. Just takes patience.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/404-6th-St-SE-Washington-DC-20003/417954_zpid/?utm_campaign=iosappmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/633-A-St-SE-Washington-DC-20003/417778_zpid/?utm_campaign=iosappmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:P.s.: we prefer something closer to 3,500 sf.

You won’t find 3500 SF on Capitol Hill, you need to be checking the suburbs or far NW

Not true.

Anonymous wrote:Sold quickly at asking price.

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/1319-D-St-NE-20002/home/9913305

I think under 900k might be the sweet spot for this market if you want to move fast. I think some of the ones we have seen sitting aimed just a little to high, in the 900s, and would have done better listing around 850k or so. For homes that the sellers bought before 2012 or so, that's still a very good ROI even if you put money into it. For instance, this place was purchased in 2008 for 470k. Even if you assume they spent 50k on upkeep/renovations, that's still over 300k in profit.

The people who might struggle to sell now bought within the last 8 years, especially those who bought within the last 2 years. But this is why you should buy a home assuming you will live there for at least 10 years. It's always been the rule of thumb and still is now. It's the only way to protect yourself against cycles in the market.