Well like many people I got my tax bill and my assessment. It seems that, according to the city, my house will be worth almost $10K less in 2010, compared to 2009. Oh well.
I’m not too concerned as it is not a jump but a shuffle. When I bought the house, several years ago, I’ve seen the city assessment of the value jump $50-$100K each year. This might be the first sign that the peak is over. It doesn’t however slow the 10% increase cap, which I noticed continues to go up. I bought the house before prices in the neighborhood shot up, and it is that lower value the cap was based on. That lower value has gone up about 10%.
Looking at my neighbors assessments, and really who doesn’t look at the neighbor’s assessments, the increases and decreases have been minimal on my block. Minimal as in a couple hundred dollars, $1K max, if any change.
Oh for anyone planning to fight their assessment, note that the city is placing a greater value on the land, not the house (aka improvements). So it won’t matter too much if the house next door is nicer. For some odd reason your land is worth $200K and your house is worth $100K. Same with the badly maintained rental up the street. See for yourself at the DC Assessment database.
Tag: Real Estate
DC will auction off nuisance properties
Their own properties that is.
You’ve complained about them. I’ve complained about them. DC owned properties that do nothing but harbor rats and trash. Well it looks like they are on the auction block (HT: Bloomingdale Blog)
Let me point out two Shaw properties on the auction block, 1713 New Jersey Ave. NW and 1504 6th St. NW. Most of the properties are in NE, and Columbia Heights. They all look like shells. But some of them are huge looking mansions, shells of mansions but huge. They’d probably make some well endowed non-profit a nice home.
214 P St NW
Broken windows, bad paint, weedy yard, just a lot of ugly. According to the DC tax database this vacant house is a class 3 exeception, so it is paying regular taxes, and not the vacant house rate. The owner is Steward Investments in Clinton, MD and they came to possess it in 2006 for 419K.
I am not going to quibble about that value, as the house next door is up for sale for $750K.
This Could Be Yours For $199K
Looking on Redfin there are a few places in NW DC that can be had for less than $200K. This is one. It will more than likely need work. However, it may be one of those things you can fix up while living rough. Sort of a bachelor project or something for a super handy couple.
Yet, it is interesting to see the number “1” in front of the numbers for some abodes again. Haven’t seen that number starting housing prices since 2003. Don’t be fooled by the 4 bedroom 3 bath claim. Houses on that side of the street are small and are usually 2 bedroom and at the most 2 bathrooms.
General Real Estate post
Hey I remember that doey eyed look. That’s the look of a young first time homebuyer. I used to have that look.
Meltdown, schmeltdown people are still buying in the hood if today’s encounter with a young woman and her Realtor was anything to gauge anything by. The pair were walking up and down the block pointing at houses, I assume, after they looked at the one house on my side of the street that is still on the market. I was outside puttering in the yard, and we chatted for a bit. Normally I’d talk up the neighborhood a bit more, but the house they were looking at has a family renting, with one really good kid in it. If Ms. Doe Eye or anyone else were to buy it, I’m sure the family could find equal and suitable housing, but moving is such a pain.
I believe the market is slow but not dead, as the house with the loud and out there residents disappeared from the real estate listings, I gather it is under contract. We’ll see in a month or so. I suspect another house on the block being fixed up will hit the market in a month or two, and maybe it might sell in the next 9 or 10 months. Maybe. Though it maybe wrong to judge a place that’s on 2/3rds done, I don’t think it would be a quick sell manly due to proportions and the aesthetic. IT and I took a quick peak at the place while workmen were still working. I think it reveals too much of a suburban Maryland aesthetic trying to shoehorn itself into a small DC rowhouse. The house was around 1,000 sf with 2.5 bathrooms. If you have a 1,000 sf house I think you may understand the problem of a 2.5 bathroom house. I have a 1,000 sf house and just 1.5 (would be 1.75 or 2 if I had $5,000 fall into my lap). One of the bedroom bathrooms was tiny and hard for IT to turn around in. IT is a thin man. The bedroom for this tiny bath was also quite small and maybe, just maybe could have a double bed and nothing else. More than likely it could have a twin and a dresser/ desk, or just be an office. Anyway it’s still not finished, and it will be interesting to see if the builder will do anything to make it easy to imagine the space as something besides cramped.
Buy a church for your new home
This place has been on the market for a while and I do wish I could find a non MRIS picture, but 1641 4th St NW is up for sale. According to a 1957 study of NorthWest 1 churches, it served as a house church. That’s sort of like a storefront church, but instead of a store, worshipers used a house. Up until last year or two years ago, a small sign reading “Faith Temple” was near the door of this house.
A few years ago, I swear there were more of these little house churches around the hood. I remember years ago walking around 1st and Bates and hearing a woman preaching, well saying words loudly in a rhythm similar to preaching. That’s gone now. There is a house church on the corner of 3rd and P. The building looks nice and seems to be well kept every time I pass by. I do have a pciture of that.
The Redfin ad for 1641 4th St, the former Faith Temple, says it has the original wood floors and looking at the pictures it looks like it has a lot of original stuff. I can see how the layout can serve a small number of people.
Now that I think of it, I have attended an Eastern Orthodox service in a converted rowhouse in Columbia Heights. While there I was paying more attention to the fact they had chairs, than the normal, non-churchy windows. Depending on the size of the congregation, a house can work for worship purposes and neighbors like it if worship does not require drums, electric bass and amps.
People check to see if you paid your taxes
I was glancing at the 2008 Tax Sale Properties and I noticed some familiar names on the list and so, not to name names, please check. Some of the amounts are small, like a few hundred dollars small, which leads me to believe that your mortgage company didn’t adjust for the taxes. So check. Seriously. Check.
Why was I looking? I was looking to see what empty lots were listed. I want a garden. More realisticly, I want to fantasize about getting an empty lot via a tax sale and turing it into a garden.
Pluleeeze buy this and open my fantasy French Restaurant
Just hitting Redfin today is 1700 New Jersey Avenue for 1.2 million. It can be a restaurant, with an apartment above and outdoor seating.
So if you happen to have a million, please, please, please, please, pretty, pretty please with sugar on top buy this and open my fantasy French bistro. That or my fantasy tandoori carry out. Or a fantasy wine bar. And since we’re talking about my fantasies, throw in my fantasy trophy husband while we’re at it.
Yes, the picture is old, but I don’t want to anger the MRIS gods.
Please buy it and open something nice. I beg you.
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.
Real Estate Agents Back on Crack
I swear some Real Estate Agents are on crack. And it has been a while since I’ve written that phrase. I was going to ponder the minor mistakes of location listing, like listing a house that is clearly in the TC as being in Eckington. But then I spotted a LeDroit Park house listed for over 4 million dollars. 1-2-3-4 Million! Yes, it has a huge lot, and 8 bedrooms, but great googgly-mooggly.
The days of houses in the hood selling in a matter of a few days gone. Gone with the $400,000 mortgages, no down payment loans given to unemployed. Gone, hopefully, is the army the get rich quick flippers and hysterical buyers descending on the next new thing.
We were the next new thing. The hot hip neighborhood. We were like the bright newly graduated student, full of potential and promise. In the 7 years I’ve been here we have come a long way, but there is still a ways to go. Still more untapped potential and promise. But it’s not going to be released any time soon with the fury and near mindless abandon we experienced, until we are once again rediscovered.
Until then lets continue to add value, real value, to those who live here now. Let us improve our homes, not for some faceless unknown buyer, but for ourselves. Let us fight for usable parks and recreational facilities. Let us encourage businesses and non-profits we will actually patronize and support with our dollars and our time and our hearts, not just to heighten our property values or to have something to mention on the MLS as an amenity, but to improve our quality of life.