Fun with Redfin: Houses Under $200K

Seven years ago, when I started looking for a place to buy, the RE market was starting its roller coaster ride up to crazy. In the “better” neighborhoods houses didn’t stay on the market very long and there were bidding wars. I was looking for fee-simple places under $125K, which was hard but not impossible. The third house I looked at, was way less than $125K and on a street I liked, so I bought it.
Fast forward, the roller coaster has gone up, and now it is heading down. Playing around with Redfin I decided to see what was out there and lo and behold prices that start with a ‘1’ are back. Just not a lot of them.
There are a bunch of under $175K condos over in the Petworth and Fort Totten area, if we want to limit this to NW DC. Bump the search up to $200K and a house will appear in Columbia Heights.
Expand the under $175K search to NE DC and more houses do appear in Frozen Tropics’ Trinidad.
The point is that the affordable house I believe is coming back. Right now it’s a handyman special or a about to be foreclosed condo. It’s not luxury for cheap but something to start with.

2 thoughts on “Fun with Redfin: Houses Under $200K”

  1. Great post Mari. I’m not just saying that because I work at Redfin. I lived and in DC for 6 years and was amazed at how expensive the homes were. I had a lot of friends leave the District in search of more affordable homes.

  2. I would have loved to be able to afford something in TC or Bloomingdale- other than a crappy little condo. I ended up buying a row house near H Street NE. I really wanted a house with a yard and no condo fees, so had to settle for the ghetto. There’s nothing really available for under 400k in 20001- unless it’s a shell.

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