Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually think it will shrink a bit.

I do too. Especially as the schools are in decline. A lot of the growth was young families moving in - who want Sfh by the way

I don't understand when anyone says the schools are in decline. There are a fair number of families that send their kids to private schools, so the qualify of the schools doesn't really matter. DCPS enrollment has actually been increasing now for the last 3 years, and the Ward 3 schools at all levels are over-enrolled, and applications to Walls and Banneker are high as well (in fairness those come from all parts of the city).

The apartments are full of people with kids who want to be in-boundary for Ward 3 schools.

Anonymous wrote:Changing zoning laws will make zero difference to housing prices.

There's 300,000 housing units in DC. There's five million people in the suburbs.

Even if you could increase the housing stock by 10 percent (hugely ambitious), it would all be absorbed by people in the burbs looking for shorter commutes.

I guess all of you who think "zoning laws" is the answer to all our problems could go buy their old place in Manassas?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Il’m not the previous poster, but please don’t make this into Ballston or Pike and Rose. Why would people live in DH if it just mimics those other places and they have lower taxes and better schools. Let’s rebuild Fh in a way that retains what’s special about the city. And yes, I’d live to see townhomes rather than tiny condos/apartments. We need places for families.

What is "special about the city" in your opinion?

Families live in apartments, too.

They do because there's not any starter home priced options. A $3-4k+ a month 2 bedroom rental apartment is not a substitute for a $500-750k townhouse.

That's the problem with housing right now. There's only two choices - an overpriced rental apartment with waterfall granite countertops or an overpriced detached house with white cabinets.

Rental costs are high, in part, because we've lost the mid-range price points.

News flash: a "starter home" in DC is now a condo. It's not a rowhouse. Please come back from 2005.

That's because there aren't many rowhouses. The big difference is rent versus ownership. Creating a bifurcated society is really bad over the long term.

There are a ton of row houses, just not that many of them in this part of Ward 3.

This resident favors townhouses on upper Wisconsin. DC's population is not growing, so adding thousands of apartments and small condos serves no purposes other than short term profits to the developers unless everyone in DC plans to move to Ward 3. Upper Wisc is basically a residential area with a commercial strip. Building lots of townhouses increases density and no doubt would make the area more affordable for many. FH easily could be built as a solid townhouse community without overly burdening the current infrastructure.

D.C.'s population hasn't been growing the last few years, but it's been on a significant upward trend for the last two decades, and it doesn't seem like it makes a lot of sense to plan as if the capital of the United States is actually Toledo (and anyway, population increased again in 2023). Do you think D.C.'s population is finished growing entirely?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have young adult children, and they are definitely not seeking 700 square foot 1 1/2 bedroom condos. They want three bedroom townhouses under 2000 square feet for under a million. Do such homes exist? All the new townhouses I see are $2 million and 3000 square feet.

Move to Rockville? You can’t afford NWDC if that’s the case. Idk why people think the world should cater to their budget?

They can’t afford NWDC due to zoning restrictions ….

So what? Not every person is entitled to live anywhere they like.

Put another way, everyone reading this will be prohibited from living somewhere as a direct result of residential zoning restrictions. For Paul and Susan, that somewhere is FH. For Tim and Liz, that somewhere is Maui. For Bob, that somewhere is Rockville

Anonymous wrote:Changing zoning laws will make zero difference to housing prices.

There's 300,000 housing units in DC. There's five million people in the suburbs.

Even if you could increase the housing stock by 10 percent (hugely ambitious), it would all be absorbed by people in the burbs looking for shorter commutes.

I guess all of you who think "zoning laws" is the answer to all our problems could go buy their old place in Manassas?

Anonymous wrote:Changing zoning laws will make zero difference to housing prices.

There's 300,000 housing units in DC. There's five million people in the suburbs.

Even if you could increase the housing stock by 10 percent (hugely ambitious), it would all be absorbed by people in the burbs looking for shorter commutes.

I guess all of you who think "zoning laws" is the answer to all our problems could go buy their old place in Manassas?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's more than that. The population has been roughly stable for 40 years.

because we need more housing...SFH used to have 6-8 people in them, sometimes multigenerational. Now, those same SHFs have like 1-3 or 4 people.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually think it will shrink a bit.

I do too. Especially as the schools are in decline. A lot of the growth was young families moving in - who want Sfh by the way

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But FH will be developed for better or worse. Would you prefer townhomes or high rises? I say this as someone who generally opposes development, but I don't see the point of lots of one bedroom condos that will ultimately be filled with voucher holders.

Townhouses preferred.

Townhomes make a lot more sense. There needs to be a mix of housing options and that is what is missing.

Townhomes are perfect for this area. You can add housing without disrupting the character too much. Way better than condos/apartments.

"character"

You mean the lilly white segratationist model?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually think it will shrink a bit.

I do too. Especially as the schools are in decline. A lot of the growth was young families moving in - who want Sfh by the way

Anonymous wrote:I actually think it will shrink a bit.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Il’m not the previous poster, but please don’t make this into Ballston or Pike and Rose. Why would people live in DH if it just mimics those other places and they have lower taxes and better schools. Let’s rebuild Fh in a way that retains what’s special about the city. And yes, I’d live to see townhomes rather than tiny condos/apartments. We need places for families.

What is "special about the city" in your opinion?

Families live in apartments, too.

They do because there's not any starter home priced options. A $3-4k+ a month 2 bedroom rental apartment is not a substitute for a $500-750k townhouse.

That's the problem with housing right now. There's only two choices - an overpriced rental apartment with waterfall granite countertops or an overpriced detached house with white cabinets.

Rental costs are high, in part, because we've lost the mid-range price points.

News flash: a "starter home" in DC is now a condo. It's not a rowhouse. Please come back from 2005.

That's because there aren't many rowhouses. The big difference is rent versus ownership. Creating a bifurcated society is really bad over the long term.

There are a ton of row houses, just not that many of them in this part of Ward 3.

This resident favors townhouses on upper Wisconsin. DC's population is not growing, so adding thousands of apartments and small condos serves no purposes other than short term profits to the developers unless everyone in DC plans to move to Ward 3. Upper Wisc is basically a residential area with a commercial strip. Building lots of townhouses increases density and no doubt would make the area more affordable for many. FH easily could be built as a solid townhouse community without overly burdening the current infrastructure.

Anonymous wrote:It's more than that. The population has been roughly stable for 40 years.