Once upon a time Shaw, and I’m talking my end, was affordable. You could by a 2 bedroom tiny closet shoe box for the low $100K range. Then nothing was promised except a 10 minute walk to the metro. The neighborhood was worse than what it is like now, and was even worse before I arrived nearly 5 years ago. So some of the old timers tell me.
So don’t assume those of us who are “new” bought at the height of the market. If I had to buy my house at what it would go for now, I couldn’t afford it. Actually, if I go by the DC tax assement values, I think I stopped being able to afford my house 3 years ago.
People told me I should have bought 5 years ago. Well that statement never helps anyone, particularly due to the lack of working time machines. But 5 years ago, there was this window, this time when a semidetached 2 level home on NJ Ave went for $99K. There was this other house, also on NJ with a garage that could (and later was) have been converted into a mother-in-law apartment going for about $89K. Then there was this small house on 5th Street that was $79K. About 4 years ago, as an estate sale, a small stucco frame house (the white one) on 6th was up for sale at sixty-some odd thousand.
Absent a fleet of time machines, this is useless info. As I write this I think of my best friend who is just now thinking that he should buy property. And 5 years ago I did encourage hime to buy, but no, he wanted certain things in his life to happen. Now, those things still haven’t happened and the market is beyond him. I really wish he’d bought 5 years ago.