Tag: Housing

Renting and owning in the upper TC 1900 style


This is the one chart I’ve managed how to figure out to do. I could go through the training course to figure out Access 2007, but right now I’m going to fool around with it and hope for the best. So in fooling around with the data I present the above. It is the level of ownership and renting for blacks, whites and one Chinese guy, divided by gender. Just going by heads of households, blacks outnumbered whites in the northern (1st, O St, NJ, FL & RI Aves) portion of the Truxton Circle study area, and most households rented. There were two types of ownership shown here, mortgage and free. Free, meaning free and clear, meaning no mortgage and the heads owned the house outright.
Now given that most housing is rental housing it would stand to take it that people where a bit mobile, as renting a house doesn’t tie one to a place for any longer than the lease. It will be interesting to see if I can get to the 1910 census how many people remained in the same spot for 10 years or more. I’m gonna bet very few, less than 5-10%. Looking through I know that at some point there is a large influx of North Carolina and South Carolina Afro-Americans who show up in later censuses, so far I see a lot of District natives, and people from Maryland and Virginia. And just as a note, so far no Italian borns, I’m guessing all those Italians who were around to support the Catania were living in an enumeration district we haven’t gotten to, or had not arrived. Well when I get the eastern TC data I’ll play with that too.

Roommates- Not just for the recession

In Saturday’s Washington Post section about people taking on roommates because of the economic downturn, I kept thinking of that 18th & 19th century stock character of the widow or couple taking in borders like the Micawbers for David Coperfield. In early 20th century pulp fiction you have the murder mystery of a dead husband with the wife and the hot young male border as suspects. It is unfortunate that it takes an economic downturn for some folks to see having roommates or boarders as a positive.
For the most part I’ve always had roommates. When I bought my house, yet after I got it in decent shape to share, I took in roommates. I could afford to live without roommates, but the extra cash doesn’t hurt, and I am sharing resources. Because I am the homeowner and it is a roommate situation I can be picky about who gets to live with me. Finding a roommate can take weeks or a couple of months depending on the season. I’ve charged between $500 and $750 a month, depending on the state of the house, season, length of stay, included utilities, etc. I’ve gotten roommates from Craigslist, personal leads, and the Washington City Paper.
Roommates can be great, not just for the money. Depending on who I’ve had, I learned about other countries and cultures, experienced the way others view the world, picked up some cooking & drink tips, and had someone around the house so I’m not talking to myself all the time.
Now if you are thinking of renting out your extra room I have a few pointers.

1. Ignore scammers. These are the long winding nonsensical emails you’ll get from foreign supermodels or freelancers with no set employment in DC or lawyers writing on behalf of their daughters/nieces. Even if they are the only responses you get all week, ignore them. They are a waste of your time.

2. Seriously interview and check references. This person will be living in your home and will have keys to it. I usually like to talk to at least one ex-roommate to find out how they are with cleaning, how responsible they are, etc.

3. Have a contract. I had a roommate agreement. The reason being is I wanted to clarify what my and what my roommate’s responsibilities were, with cleaning, utilities, smoking, guests, and lost keys. You can find examples here, here, and here (PDF).

4. Sometimes nobody is better than anybody. Try not to be desperate to get just anybody in. If you seriously can’t afford the rent on your own, a deadbeat roommate just makes the situation worse.

Find a home for Turtlegirl

Turtle Girl seems to have found something.
My former supervisor’s daughter just got a job working at National Airport and needs a place to stay. I’m calling said daughter Turtlegirl, because she likes to stay in her room on her computer. For some people she’d make an excellent roommate mainly for her keen staying the hell out of the way & being quiet superpowers. Like the mighty turtle she tends to retreat into her shell. She’ll need to emerge for heating food up, laundry and hygienic activities.
If my room were available I would house her, but alas it is occupied by someone else. So I am calling out to those of you in Shaw or at least a 10 minute walk from a yellow, green or blue line station who is charging less than $800 and has Internet, cable, washer and dryer and kitchen privileges. Please email me – mari at inshaw dot com if you have room for Turtlegirl.

Housing Under $250K

I was noticing a photo, more like a screen shot, from Scenic Artisan of the Redfin graphic showing housing under $250K. They are pretty much all east of the Park. Rock Creek Park, the one of several big dividing lines. The other things that divide are 16th Street NW and the Anacostia River.
And there is a big ole cluster of under $250K 2 bedroom, 1 bath houses east of the River, over near Capitol Heights. There are a few in what looks to be Petworth, parts of Columbia Heights and Brightwood. There are a couple in Truxton Circle proper. One is on the corner of 3rd and P as an as is. There is another on Florida Ave. But the problem with Florida Avenue, well a problem for me, is that there is almost no space between your front door and the sidewalk of a very busy street. In the NE, non-Shaw part of Truxton (see I love confusing y’all) on Florida is another house for $170K. Also no room between the front door and the crappy sidewalk.

Sibling Rivalry & Slumlording All In One

I’ve been debating about if I should post this bit of family business on the blog. Everyso often I might mention my sister and my nieces, one of whom is my blog icon. But so I’m not explaining the story over and over, as I have forgotten who I’ve told and when and how much, I’m going to try here.

Shaw has a fair amount of subsidized housing, it is the thing that keeps the neighborhood economically diverse, which is good. However, I don’t believe subsidized housing is a good long term solution for individual families. At least not my family. It’s fine for seniors, as we do need to care for our elderly, but for young families with developing children, no. Not long term. My sister and her husband and her daughters (my nieces) live in subsidized housing in Florida, and finally G-d has provided the means for me to get them out of there.
My sister’s family live in a run down apartment complex. Earlier this year the local paper announced that the conditions were so bad that HUD was going to revoke federal funding for that and another complex. From my own visits I observed poorly maintained parking lots with tons of pot holes, and a blue tarp covering the roof that had been there for a while.
Also going on is the Real Estate troubles which have hit Florida really hard. Poking around on-line I discovered a house near my mother’s house for $7,500. Yes, $7,500 for a stick structure and a little plot of land. But the stick structure needed lots of work and in inquiring about it I hooked up with a Realtor. Bob, the Realtor worked with my Mom and my sister and found us a foreclosure that was clean and in almost move in condition for well under $40K. However, I’ve had to destroy all my savings and investments to make it happen. So there is some good in the foreclosure crisis.
So once I get some minor repairs done (some leaks, a hole in the wall, etc), figure out how to hook up the utilities, and get her to sign the lease, I will be my sister’s landlord. She and the family will move to a working/middle class and diverse neighborhood. And if she can manage not to stiff me for the rent (taxes & insurance mainly), she will be able to buy the house at a discounted price after a number of years. Which is fair since she’s in charge of all the maintenance. This moves my nieces out of an area of concentrated poverty and into an environment where they can be free to run in their own yard. The yard also give my BIL a place to garden.
This is not charity, it’s taking care of family and an opportunity to live out my beliefs. As a society we should take care of the least fortunate, but we should also encourage them to become strong and independent so they on an individual level can help others as well. I see independence as freedom, and everyone should be free.
I want to thank my roommate whose help has been invaluable as she drove me to the inconvenient bank and the other places I needed to get to. And I need to thank my supervisor, who let me leave work with a moment’s notice to deal with this.
So I’m going to put the blog in sleep mode while I take care of my new house, so the comments are in moderated mode. I’ll be back to the blog in a week or so.

Beware of Craigslist Scams

Seems someone was trying to rent out 429 Warner St NW as part of their scam. I’ve mentioned the various Craigslist housing scams here, here, and here.
For the love of G-d, or whomever/whatever you hold dear use common sense when conducting a house search. If Ms. Future Landlord is off away in London or Leeds or the deepest darkest part of Angola, and can’t show you the DC place, MOVE ON, IT’S A SCAM! Think, if someone can’t even show you inside, how would they handle the AC not working or other landlord duties? They won’t because IT’S A SCAM. On of my neighbors was sent to Bangledesh, has a local real estate company doing the management. So in a real life situation you’d be talking to a real estate office, not emailing some scammer. No excuses if you’re out in BFE, Nebraska and you can’t physically take a look at it. Stay in a hostel for a week or work with a real estate office/ management firm that has a number in the phone book, crash with your sister’s ex-roommate’s second cousin, but don’t just hand money over to a complete stranger for a place you haven’t seen.

Intern Housing Advice: $500 a month will not get you an apartment in Penn Quarter

Followup from Intern Housing Advice: Scope your location. This is my advice to young ones who are coming here from where ever for an internship, fellowship or whatever to avoid the scams that haunt the housing boards on Craigslist.
Pretty much almost all the listings on Craigslist for DC apartments under $600, if they actually are in DC not College Park or Crystal City, smell fishy or are mislisted. This is obviously a scam, using someone elses pictures. Well obvious to someone familiar with the city.
So let me quickly go over the scam. Say you are an intern looking for housing and you see this great ad for an apartment in DC for $450. You email the contact in the ad and they are willing to rent it to you sight unseen. You then send/wire/Paypal the deposit+ 1st month’s rent or the application fee to this person you don’t know from Adam, for a place you’ve never set foot in, and your money is gone.
Cheap rent is to be had in group houses and rooms for rent. Typically an honest ad will give an intersection the place is near and mention the neighborhood it’s in. Group houses may also be funished, or at least have furnishings left over from the last roommate.

Average Janitor Cannot Afford To Buy Average House in Bethesda

$10 gets you nowhere at Saks 5th Avenue.
The Metrobus operator will not drop me off in front of my house.
Handsome underwear models do not flirt with me.
There is no justice.

Someone over at the National Housing Conference alerted me to their new study on home ownership and affordability called “Paycheck to Paycheck: Wages and the Cost of Housing in America.” According to their study Bethesda, MD is the 15th most expensive place to purchase a home, Washington, DC as a whole (I gather they factored in Georgetown and Barry Farm) ranks at number 24. Baltimore was at 34. For rentals DC and Bethesda tied at number 19.
The Area Median Income (AMI) around here for 2009 is $64,000 (PDF) and the biggest job title is office drone and executive assistant to the assistant peon (occ. code 43). There aren’t a whole lot janitors making up a percentage of the official job pool.
The NHC study also looks at the affordability of the average home for first responders and school teachers. According to their chart, school teachers and police officers can afford the fair market rent of the average two bedroom. Which is good to know when the odd developer comes shuffling through trying to push workforce housing for school teachers and police.

Intern Housing Advice: Scope your location

In a few weeks we’ll be getting some shiny new interns, or fellows. Apparently at some places you can’t call interns, interns, something about a seedy connotation. At my place we got some gal last year who came to the area, rented waaaaaay out in Fairfax, with no car, and paying what I thought was too much for the location. So I’m putting out this public announcement in memory of her.

Physically check out apts, group homes, rooms, don’t just rely on the internet.

Seriously.

“Walking distance” and “close to” are subjective. So are at times location names. Where I am has been described as Dupont East, LeDriot, Logan East, Eckington, Bloomingdale, Shaw, Truxton, and NW. Only three of those are correct.

“Near metro” can mean the metro station is just across the street or the area is served by a metro bus a mile away that only runs every other hour and never on weekends. If you have to depend on the bus and the place is in PG County, avoid at all costs. Metro bus service there is crap.

When I advertise my extra bedroom I tend to demand that perspective roommates visit the house. Besides being a way to separate the serious house searchers from the flakes and Nigerian scam artists, it lets me gauge a person’s comfort with the neighborhood. The TC ain’t right for everybody. The bars on the windows of about 80% of the houses on my block bother some people. The demographics on the street may be unsettling or the houses seem too small and cramped. Things you can’t tell or judge by simply looking at a few pictures on-line.

‘But’, you say I live all the way out in BFE, USA and I’m in school, I can’t take off time to look at places.’ When I was a grad student at UMASS-Amherst I took the 3 hour bus ride to Boston to look for housing before my internship started. When I went to London for work, I stayed in youth hostels and cheap tourist hotels before I landed in a group house in Earls Court. So I’m really not feeling that excuse.

Next time: Intern Housing Advice: $500 a month will not get you an apartment in Penn Quarter.