Thursday, April 27, 2006

updates

No updates are likely until the end of next week.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Housing Report

Some interesting excerpts from this report on the D.C. housing market from the Brookings Institution:
Incredibly, in 1996, developers did not seek a single residential building permit in the city, but just two years later the District issued more than 429 of them. As the market heated up, more developers went into action. In 2004 they took out more than 1,900 building permits, more than six times the average for the 1990s.

...Between 2000 and 2003,the median single-family house price leapt by 45 percent -- a higher increase than in any other section of the metropolitan area -- from $159,000 to $290,000. Then, between September 2003 and September 2005 the median sales price of homes in the District shot up even faster, by 57% to $485,000.

...To acquire a home in the increasingly expensive market, an increasing proportion of buyers took out adjustable rate, balloon, and other high-risk types of mortgages. In the first half of 2005, for example, half of all homebuyers in the District purchased homes with interest-only loans.

...Between 2001 and 2003, for example, the average of advertised rents for one- and two-bedroom apartments in Washington shot up by 60 and 84 percent, respectively ... Between 2000 and 2004, the portion of tenants paying more than 30 percent of their income for rent jumped from 39 to 46 percent and the share paying more than 50 percent of their income climbed from 18 percent to 23 percent.
Certainly some food for thought.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Wormley School Condos


Here is the description of the Wormley School Condos development in Georgetown from dclofts.com:
In mid-2005, Georgetown University sold for nearly $8.3 million this land with a historic, red-brick school building built in 1875 to the developers who plan to convert the building into 9 condominium units with an average of 1,500 square feet. On the old playground and parking lot, the developer plans to construct 6 new row houses with 3,000 to 5,000 square feet of space plus an underground parking garage for the residences. Plans are being designed by the architecture firm of Cunningham-Quill. Read more.
While dclofts says that construction may start as early as this summer, there are signs it is already underway. If you look carefully in the bottom picture you will see a construction worker and what appears to be a cement mixer on the premises. Didn't appear to be anything major to me though, probably just prep work.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

15th and Girard

Unknown development at the corner of Girard and 15th I believe. Any ideas?

Kalorama Court

Kalorama Court.

DC USA

View of the DC USA retail development. Picture shows corner of 14th and Irving.
14th and Park Rd.

The Dance Institute of Washington

Official site.

The Celsius

The Celsius.

Kenyon Square

View from near the Tivoli Theater.
View from 14th St.
View from the CVS store across the street from the metro. Official site.

Verona Parc

Verona Parc.

Lofts of Columbia Heights


Lofts of Columbia Heights.

Friday, April 07, 2006

1010 Mass Ave.

1010 Mass Ave.

777 6th St.


Here is the only info I could find on this Chinatown development.

Dumont Condos

Dumont Condos. Like City Vista, this is another huge development that will have 562 units when complete.

The Sonata

The Sonata.

Madrigal Lofts

Madrigal Lofts.

Yale Steam Laundry Condos


Yale Steam Laundry Condos.

City Vista

City Vista. This is a huge development that according to dclofts will have 685 total residences when all phases are completed.

The Whitman

Not so great photo of the rear of The Whitman. Appears on track for a Q4 delivery.

1301-1309 9th St.


Official site.

The Leonardo (?)

I believe the name of this project at the corner of 9th and R in Shaw is the Leonardo.

The Floridian

The Floridian. Not much going on here.

The Rhapsody


The Rhapsody.

The Beauregard



The Beauregard.

Flats at Union Row



The Flats at Union Row.

Development roundup

DCist has posted their development roundup.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Sheridan Garage

Compare with earlier pic here. Note the big hole that has appeared under the garage door. Lot of work going on under the building structure.

Jefferson Row

Jefferson Row.

Georgetown Heights


Georgetown Heights, which isn't actually located in Georgetown but Glover Park. Not sure how great the views are from the first two stories either. Diagonal from the front entrance is a gas station. Units here start in the $700s. Saw some workers there so I guess they're still putting the finishing touches on.